October steel import permits increase in the US

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 3,386,000 net tons (nt). This was a 15 percent increase from the 2,936,000 permit tons recorded in September and a 22 percent increase from the September preliminary imports total of 2,773,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 2,357,000, up 9 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,168,000 in September. For the first ten months of 2015 (including October SIMA and September preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 34,227,000 nt and 27,478,000 nt, respectively, down 8 percent and 1 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 28 percent and is 30 percent year-to-date (YTD).

Finished steel imports with large increases in October permits vs. the September preliminary included reinforcing bars (up 131 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 45 percent), wire rods (up 40 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coated (up 40 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 27 percent) and standard pipe (up 22 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2014 include reinforcing bar (up 50 percent), line pipe (up 26 percent), standard pipe (up 20 percent), tin plate (up 12 percent) and wire drawn (up 10 percent).

In October, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (364,000 nt, up 31 percent from September preliminary, Turkey (313,000 nt up 107 percent), Brazil (189,000 nt, up 72 percent), Japan (141,000, down 22 percent) and Taiwan (135,000 nt, up 103 percent). Through the first ten months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (4,313,000 nt, down 6 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (2,503,000 nt, up 37 percent) and China (2,167,000, down 20 percent).