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 April total 2,449,000 net tons (NT).
This was a 20 percent decrease from the 3,057,000 permit tons recorded in March and a 5 percent decrease from the March preliminary imports total of 2,569,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in April was 2,047,000, down 2 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,097,000 in March. For the first four months of 2016 (including April SIMA and March preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 9,942,000 NT and 8,471,000 NT, down 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2015. The estimated finished steel import market share in April was 25 percent and is 25 percent year-todate (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in April permits vs. the March preliminary included hot rolled bars (up 40 percent), line pipe (up 30 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 21 percent), structural pipe and tube (up 17 percent) and standard pipe (up 13 percent).
In April, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (317,000 NT, up 14 percent from March preliminary), Turkey (178,000 NT down 36 percent), Japan (138,000 NT, down 7 percent), Germany (89,000 NT, up 23 percent) and China (74,000 NT, up 7 percent). Through the first four months of 2016, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,214,000 NT, down 49 percent from the same period in 2015), Turkey (906,000 NT, down 26 percent) and Japan (589,000 NT, down 32 percent).
Published in the June 2016 Edition of American Recycler News
