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 October totaled 2,774,000 net tons (NT).
This was a 4.7 percent decrease from the 2,912,000 permit tons recorded in September and a 1.1 percent increase from the September preliminary imports total of 2,745,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 2,203,000, up 4.5 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,108,000 in September. For the first ten months of 2016 (including October SIMA permits and September preliminary data), total and finished steel imports were 27,548,000 NT and 21,978,000 NT, down 18.8 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2015. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 26 percent and is 25 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in October permits vs. the September preliminary included tin free steel (up 85 percent), oil country goods (up 67 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 32 percent), line pipe (up 31 percent), hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip (up 19 percent), hot rolled bars (up 18 percent) and cold rolled sheets (up 12 percent). Tin plate (up 13 percent) had a significant year-to-date (YTD) increase vs. the same period in 2015.
In October, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (251,000 NT, down 11 percent from September preliminary), Turkey (234,000 NT, up 48 percent), Japan (144,000 NT, down 3 percent), Vietnam (121,000 NT, up 23 percent) and The Netherlands (100,000 NT, up 36 percent). Through the first ten months of 2016, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,243,000 NT, down 25 percent from the same period in 2015), Turkey (2,087,000 NT, down 16 percent) and Japan (1,572,000 NT, down 19 percent).
Published in the December 2016 Edition of American Recycler News