Based on the US Department of Commerce's most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Thursday that steel import permit applications for the month of November total 2,541,000 net tons (nt). For the first 11 months of 2013 (including November SIMA and October preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 29,550,000 nt and 22,954,000 nt, respectively, each down 5 percent from the same period in 2012. The estimated finished steel import market share in November was 22 percent and is 23 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in November permits vs. the October preliminary included standard rails (up 238 percent), light shapes bars (up 111 percent) and line pipe (up 27 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2012 include reinforcing bars (up 21 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 20 percent), standard rails (up 16 percent), hot rolled bars (up 14 percent) and sheet and strip all other metallic coatings (up 12 percent).
In November, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (317,000 nt, down 14 percent from October preliminary), Japan (161,000 nt up 28 percent), China (157,000 nt, down 27 percent), Germany (105,000 nt, no change) and The Netherlands (67,000 nt, down 18 percent). Through the first 11 months of 2013, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,459,000 nt, down 1 percent from the same period in 2012), Japan (1,768,000 nt, down 4 percent) and China (1,750,000 nt, up 18 percent).