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 January totaled 2,922,000 net tons (NT). This was a 23.4 percent increase from the 2,369,000 permit tons recorded in December and a 36.8 percent increase from the December final imports total of 2,135,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in January was 2,227,000, up 22.2 percent from the final imports total of 1,822,000 in December. The estimated finished steel import market share in January was 25 percent.
Steel imports with large increases in January permits vs. the December final imports include reinforcing bars (up 178 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 174 percent), blooms, billets and slabs (up 122 percent), oil country goods (up 72 percent) and line pipe (up 66 percent).
In January, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (624,000 NT, up 20 percent vs. December final), Brazil (543,000 NT, up 377 percent), Mexico (407,000 NT, up 25 percent), South Korea (220,000 NT, up 5 percent) and Germany (117,000 NT, up 22 percent).
Published March 2025
