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 May total 3,432,000 net tons (nt). This was a 3 percent increase from the 3,344,000 permit tons recorded in April and a 1 percent decrease from the April preliminary imports total of 3,483,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in May was 2,759,000, down 6 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,938,000 in April. For the first five months of 2015 (including May SIMA and April preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 18,636,000 nt and 15,365,000 nt, respectively, up 7 percent and 20 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in May was 29 percent and is 32 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in May permits vs. the April preliminary included standard rail (up 142 percent), tin plate (up 98 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 23 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 11 percent), cut lengths plates (up 11 percent) and hot rolled bars (up 10 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2014 include line pipe (up 70 percent), standard pipe (up 42 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 41 percent), cut lengths plates (up 35 percent), reinforcing bars (up 31 percent), tin plate (up 31 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 27 percent), plates in coils (up 26 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 24 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 15 percent) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 13 percent).
In May, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (371,000 nt, down 27 percent from April preliminary, China (306,000 nt up 5 percent), Japan (203,000 nt, down 10 percent), Turkey (200,000, down 7 percent) and Germany (135,000 nt, up 12 percent). Through the first five months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,760,000 nt, up 28 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1,410,000 nt, up 85 percent) and China (1,334,000, up 4 percent).