Metals
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 totaled 2,182,000 net tons (NT). This was a 1.9 percent increase from the 2,141,000 permit tons recorded in November and an 8.8 percent increase from the November preliminary imports total of 2,006,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in December was 1,850,000, up 5.2 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,758,000 in November. For the full year of 2022 (including December SIMA permits and November preliminary imports), total and finished steel imports were 30,822,000 NT and 25,245,000 NT, down 2.0 percent and up 10.9 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2021. The estimated finished steel import market share in December was 23 percent and is 24 percent for the full year of 2022.
Steel imports with large increases in December permits vs. November preliminary imports include standard rail (up 182 percent), line pipe (up 70 percent), ingots and billets and slabs (up 34 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 25 percent) and reinforcing bars (up 22 percent). Products with significant increases for the full year of 2022 vs 2021 include line pipe (up 47 percent), standard pipe (up 45 percent), oil country goods (up 43 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 37 percent) and wire rods (up 31 percent).
In December, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (494,000 NT, down 6 percent from November preliminary), Mexico (417,000 NT, up 66 percent), South Korea (203,000 NT, up 46 percent), Japan (139,000 NT, up 34 percent) and Germany (72,000 NT, down 39 percent). For the full year of 2022, the largest suppliers were Canada (6,830,000 NT, down 2 percent), Mexico (5,304,000 NT, up 11 percent) and South Korea (2,786,000 NT, up 1 percent).
Published in the February 2023 Edition
