The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced Wednesday that based on the Commerce Department's most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, steel permit applications totaled 2,011,000 net tons (nt) in January, an 8.6 percent increase over the 1,852,000 recorded in December. Import permit tonnage for finished steel products totaled 1,602,000 nt last month, an 11 percent increase from December's preliminary import total of 1,445,000 nt.
The largest finished steel import permit applications in January were from Korea (213,000 nt, up 22 percent from December), and Japan (134,000 nt, up 25 percent from December).
Finished steel import permit applications for major products that had the largest month-over-month increases in January were line pipe (up 56 percent), OCTG (up 46 percent), and standard pipe (up 32 percent).