Imports increased by 15.9 percent in January compared to December but were off by 31 percent from January 2009.' 'Imports increased in January in response to the slowly improving market conditions,' reported David Phelps, president, AIIS.

'As steel market demand has improved in some sectors, and with significant raw steel capacity still offline, domestic mills increased their purchase of imported semifinished steel for arrival in January.' In addition, OCTG imports increased in January in response to the improving drill rig count.' We look forward with some cautious optimism that market conditions will continue to improve for both domestic mills and importers,' concluded Phelps.

Total Steel imports in January 2010 were 1.6 million tons compared to 1.4 million'tons in December 2009, a 15.9 %'increase, and a 31 % decrease compared to January 2009. The data show that imported semifinished products increased by 77.8% in January 2010 as compared to January 2009, based on preliminary reporting.