President Donald Trump has stated that the U.S. will “going to stop the dumping [of steel] and stop all of these wonderful other countries from coming in and killing our companies and our workers.”, Bloomberg reports. This appears to prejudge the “section 232” review of the steel industry, which is due to issue its findings and recommendations to the President by the end of June, as outlined in Panjiva research of May 25.

The sense of urgency is unsurprising. While the review will be based on 2016 data, steel imports have increased 62.0% in April, Panjiva data shows. While total imports are 35.8% below their peak of 2014 on an annual basis, on a monthly basis there has been a year-over-year increase every month since November. That has been led by Russia, Canada, Mexico and other smaller countries, who may therefore be targets for new cases. The most recent data shows imports by sea of iron and steel products have increased by 18% in May.

The remaining question is whether, as is possible under law, the President will act to ban – or at least restrict – all steel imports, or whether specific products will be targeted. It is also worth noting that a similar review of aluminum is underway, with public hearings due on June 22.

Chart segments U.S. imports of all steel products (HS 72) by dollar value of change in imports compared to a year earlier.  Source: Panjiva