Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that steel import permit applications for the month of December total 2,551,000 net tons (nt). This was a 5 percent decrease from the 2,681,000 permit tons recorded in November and an 8 percent increase from the November Preliminary imports total of 2,351,000 nt.
Import permit tonnage for finished steel in December was 2,041,000, up 6 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,921,000 in November. For the full year of 2015 (including December SIMA and November Preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 38,844,000 nt and 31,416,000 nt, respectively, down 12 percent and 7 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in December was 28 percent and is 29 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in December permits vs. the November Preliminary included bars light shapes (up 109 percent), wire rods (up 72 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 52 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 25 percent), hot rolled bars (up 22 percent) and cold rolled sheets (up 11 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2014 include reinforcing bar (up 38 percent) and standard pipe (up 13 percent).
In December, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (259,000 nt, down 13 percent from November Preliminary), Turkey (160,000 nt up 9 percent), Japan (120,000 nt, down 27 percent), China (95,000 nt, up 50 percent) and Brazil (100,000, down 20 percent). For full year 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (4,861,000 nt, down 11 percent from 2014), Turkey (2,792,000 nt, up 27 percent) and China (2,333,000, down 27 percent).