Based on the US Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Wednesday that steel import permit applications for the month of March total 3,744,000 net tons (nt). This was a 3 percent decrease from the 3,855,000 permit tons recorded in February and a 1 percent increase from the February preliminary imports total of 3,712,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in March was 3,275,000, up13 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,909,000 in February. For the first three months of 2015 (including March SIMA and February preliminary), total and finished steel imports were11,849,000 nt and 9,756,000 nt, respectively, up 22 percent and 36 percent from the same period in 2014.The estimated finished steel import market share in March was 32 percent and is 33 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in March permits vs. the February preliminary included steel piling (up 313 percent), reinforcing bars (up 102 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 93 percent), wire drawn (up 50 percent), line pipe (up 40 percent), hot rolled bars (up 27 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 16 percent) and plates in coils (up 16 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2014include line pipe (up111 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 93 percent), cut lengths plates (up 80 percent), plates in coils (up 52 percent), standard pipe (up 47 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 40 percent), reinforcing bars (up 34 percent), oil country goods (up 33 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 30 percent), tin plate (up 25 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 21 percent) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 17 percent).
In March, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (618,000 nt, up 29 percent from February preliminary), Turkey (422,000 nt, up 46 percent), China (241,000 nt, down 9 percent), Japan (210,000 nt, down 1 percent) and India (177,000 nt, up 92 percent). Through the first three months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,936,000 nt, up 66 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1,009,000 nt, up 115 percent) and China (705,000 nt, up 24 percent).