The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Wednesday that based on the US Department of Commerce's Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, steel import permit applications in November totaled 1.98 million net tons (nt), a 14 percent decline from the 2.3 million nt recorded in October. Preliminary data for November also reflects a 9 percent decrease from October preliminary imports of 2.12 million nt. Permit tonnage for finished steel imports fell 8 percent from October to November and finished steel import market share in the US dropped to 20 percent.
Import permit applications in the US from Korea totaled 198,000 nt, the highest among total import permit applications in the US during November, followed by the Netherlands with 113,000 nt (up 106 percent from October), Japan with 95,000 nt (down 16 percent from October) and China (86,000 nt and down 17 percent from October).