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 Wednesday that steel import permit applications for the month of February total 2,558,000 net tons (nt). This was a 5 percent decrease from the 2,692,000 permit tons recorded in January and down 0.8 percent from the January preliminary imports total of 2,579,000 nt. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in February was 1,937,000, down 8 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,106,000 in January. February 2013 total and finished steel import permit tons would annualize at 30,822,000 nt and 25,258,000 nt, down 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively, compared to the 33,475,000 nt and 25,826,000 nt imported in 2012. The estimated finished steel import market share in February was 22 percent and is 23 percent year-to-date.
Finished steel imports with large increases in February permits versus the January preliminary include: cut length plates (up 65 percent); plates in coils (up 29 percent); standard rails (up 29 percent) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 19 percent). Major products with significant year-to-date increases compared to the same period in 2012 include sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 24 percent); line pipe (up 20 percent) and wire drawn (up 17 percent).
In February, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (296,000 nt and down 15 percent from January); Turkey (144,000 nt and up 9 percent); Japan (134,000 nt and down 3 percent); China (119,000 nt and down 28 percent) and Germany (100,000 nt and up 36 percent). Through the first two months of 2013, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea, China and Turkey.