Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis data, the American Iron and Steel Institute reported that steel import permit applications for the month of September total 2,891,000 net tons (NT).
This was an 8 percent decrease from the 3,130,000 permit tons recorded in August and a 6 percent decrease from the August Final imports total of 3,061,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in September was 2,226,000, down 10 percent from the final imports total of 2,478,000 in August. For the first 9 months of 2015 (including September SIMA and August final), total and finished steel imports were 30,959,000 NT and 25,180,000 NT, respectively, down 5 percent and up 3 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in September was 25 percent and is 30 percent year-to-date.
In September, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (306,000 NT, up 1 percent from August Final), Japan (188,000 NT down 13 percent), Germany (153,000 NT, up 80 percent), Turkey (148,000, down 13 percent) and China (127,000 NT, down 19 percent). Through the first 9 months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,977,000 NT, down 1 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (2,186,000 NT, up 48 percent) and China (2,089,000, down 11 percent).
Published in the November 2015 Edition of American Recycler News