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 2,483,000 net tons (NT)*.
This was a 9.8 percent increase from the 2,262,000 permit tons recorded in December and a 12.7 percent increase from the December final imports total of 2,203,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in January was 1,952,000, up 4.8 percent from the final imports total of 1,863,000 in December. The estimated finished steel import market share in January was 23 percent.
Steel imports with large increases in January permits vs. the December final imports include heavy structural shapes (up 102 percent), cut lengths plates (up 69 percent), tin free steel (up 63 percent), ingots and billets and slabs (up 56 percent) and reinforcing bars (up 51 percent).
In January, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (591,000 NT, up 13 percent vs. December final), Mexico (458,000 NT, up 10 percent), Brazil (309,000 NT, up 535 percent), Japan (108,000 NT, down 9 percent) and South Korea (104,000 NT, down 55 percent).
*Note that import permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications for licenses to import steel mill products and are not actual import volumes.
Published in the March 2023 Edition