Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that steel import permit applications for the month of January totaled 2,914,000 net tons (NT). This was a 17.7 percent increase from the 2,475,000 permit tons recorded in December and an 18.9 percent increase from the December final imports total of 2,450,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in January was 2,306,000, up 22.6 percent from the final imports total of 1,880,000 in December. The estimated finished steel import market share in January was 26 percent.
Finished steel imports with large increases in January permits vs. the December final included sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 134 percent), reinforcing bars (up 133 percent), oil country goods (up 73 percent), line pipe (up 56 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 24 percent), hot rolled bars (up 17 percent), standard pipe (up 15 percent) and plates in coils (up 10 percent).
In January, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (362,000 NT, up 89 percent from December final), Turkey (170,000 NT, up 192 percent), Japan (135,000 NT, up 65 percent), Taiwan (125,000 NT, up 208 percent) and Germany (89,000 NT, down 15 percent).
Published in the April 2018 Edition