Steel import permits climb 12 percent in January

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Monday that steel import permit applications for the month of January totaled nearly 1.54 million net tons (nt), an increase of 12 percent from approximately 1.38 million nt recorded in December 2009, based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.

The largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries in January 2010 were for Korea, at 139,000 nt, up 34 percent from December; Japan, at 95,000 nt, down 7 percent; China, at 68,000 nt, up 45 percent; Italy, at 52,000 nt, up 5 percent; and the United Kingdom, at 39,000 nt, up 97 percent.

Finished steel import permits for major product categories that registered significant increases in January versus prelimary results for December 2009 include oil tubular country goods, at 97 percent; standard rails, at 77 percent; heavy structural shapes, at 44 percent; line pipe, at 32 percent; and standard pipe, at 16 percent.

Thomas J. Gibson, AISI president and CEO, stated, “The imports situation over the last several months has not changed very much. Import market share is staying at or just below 20 percent, and the three top offshore suppliers of finished steel continue to be Asian nations. The key thing we remain concerned about is that the domestic steel industry and manufacturing at large in the United States are only now in the beginning stages of a long, slow, fragile recovery. Therefore, close vigilance against dumped and subsidized imports of individual products from individual countries must be maintained.”