Based on the 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 October total 4,382,000 net tons (nt). This was an 8 percent increase from the 4,043,000 permit tons recorded in September and a 12 percent increase from the September final imports total of 3,900,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 3,376,000, up 14 percent from the final imports total of 2,955,000 in September. For the first 10 months of 2014 (including October SIMA and September final), total and finished steel imports were 36,947,000 nt and 27,792,000 nt, respectively, up 37 percent and 32 percent from the same period in 2013. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 31 percent and is 28 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in October permits vs. the September final included standard rails (up 234 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 52 percent), plates in coils (up 37 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 32 percent), line pipe (up 28 percent), reinforcing bars (up 26 percent), hot rolled bars (up 16 percent), cut lengths plates (up 14 percent) and hot rolled sheets (up 14 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2013 include plates in coils (up 86 percent), wire rods (up 86 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 85 percent), cut lengths plates (up 71 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 56 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 54 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 42 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 42 percent), mechanical tubing (up 32 percent), tin plate (up 23 percent) and oil country goods (up 20 percent).
In October, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (532,000 nt, up 38 percent from September final), China (369,000 nt up 12 percent), Turkey (299,000 nt, up 72 percent), Japan (254,000, up 45 percent) and Russia (142,000 nt, down 21 percent). Through the first ten months of 2014, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (4,545,000 nt, up 43 percent from the same period in 2013), China (2,711,000 nt, up 70 percent) and Japan (1,785,000, up 11 percent).