The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced Wednesday that based on the US Department of Commerce's most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, steel import permit applications for March totaled 2,378,000 net tons (nt). Steel import permit applications for March represent a 24 percent increase from the 1,914,000 permit tons recorded in February and a 34 percent increase from the February preliminary imports total of 1,777,000 nt.
Import permit tonnage for finished steel in March was 1,812,000 nt, up 32 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,371,000 nt in February. While February was 28-day month compared to 31 days for March, the March total for SIMA finished steel imports was the highest monthly amount in over two years.
Additionally, the AISI reported that finished steel imports in Q1 2011 were 7 percent higher than in Q4 2010, and the estimated finished steel import market share in March rose to 22 percent.