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 July total 3,241,000 net tons (NT).
This was a 4 percent increase from the 3,112,000 permit tons recorded in June and a 6 percent increase from the June preliminary imports total of 3,049,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in July was 2,538,000, up 3 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,458,000 in June. For the first 7 months of 2015 (including July SIMA and June preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 24,911,000 NT and 20,370,000 NT, respectively, down 0.2 percent and up 9 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in July was 27 percent and is 31 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in July permits vs. the June preliminary included standard rails (up 345 percent), reinforcing bars (up 137 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 18 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 15 percent) and hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip (up 13 percent). Products with significant YTD increases vs. the same period in 2014 include line pipe (up 55 percent), reinforcing bars (up 53 percent), standard pipe (up 32 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 20 percent), tin plate (up 15 percent), plates in coils (up 14 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 13 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 13 percent) and cut lengths plates (up 12 percent).
In July, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (298,000 NT, down 1 percent from June preliminary), Turkey (269,000 NT up 48 percent), China (262,000 NT, up 48 percent), Japan (149,000, down 26 percent) and Germany (149,000 NT, down 2 percent). Through the first seven months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,345,000 NT, up 6 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1,898,000 NT, up 73 percent) and China (1,770,000, down 1 percent).
Published in the September 2015 Edition of American Recycler News