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 September total 3,879,000 net tons (NT).
This was a 5 percent increase from the 3,678,000 permit tons recorded in August and a 6 percent increase from the August Preliminary imports total of 3,667,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in September was 2,838,000, up 3 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,768,000 in August. For the first 9 months of 2014 (including September SIMA and August Preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 32,513,000 NT and 24,267,000 NT, respectively, up 36 percent and 29 percent from the same period in 2013. The estimated finished steel import market share in September was 28 percent and is 27 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in September permits vs. the August Preliminary included cold rolled sheets (up 40 percent), wire rods (up 30 percent), tin plate (up 26 percent), cut lengths plates (up 23 percent) and hot rolled sheets (up 17 percent). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2013 include cold rolled sheets (up 83 percent), wire rods (up 81 percent), plates in coils (up 78 percent), cut lengths plates (up 63 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 57 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 50 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 47 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 35 percent), mechanical tubing (up 31 percent), oil country goods (up 26 percent) and tin plate (up 19 percent).
In September, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (407,000 NT, down 10 percent from August Preliminary), China (337,000 NT up 49 percent), Turkey (185,000 NT, down 12 percent), Russia (171,000, up 66 percent) and Japan (141,000 NT, down 14 percent). Through the first 9 months of 2014, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (4,033,000 NT, up 45 percent from the same period in 2013), China (2,350,000 NT, up 71 percent) and Japan (1,497,000, up 1 percent).
Published in the November 2014 Edition of American Recycler News