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 May totaled 2,582,000 net tons (NT).
This was a 10.8 percent decrease from the 2,895,000 permit tons recorded in April and a 21.9 percent decrease from the April preliminary imports total of 3,304,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in May was 1,809,000, down 10.1 percent from the preliminary imports total of 2,011,000 in April. For the first five months of 2019 (including May SIMA permits and April preliminary imports), total and finished steel imports were 14,071,000 NT and 9,875,000 NT, down 8.6 percent and 18.8 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2018. The estimated finished steel import market share in May was 18 percent and is 21 percent year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in May permits vs. April preliminary imports included sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 113 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 90 percent), reinforcing bars (up 69 percent), hot rolled bars (up 20 percent), standard pipe (up 12 percent), and tin plate (up 12 percent). A product with a significant year-to-date (YTD) increase vs. the same period in 2018 was line pipe (up 11 percent).
In May, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (296,000 NT, up 8 percent from April preliminary), Japan (123,000 NT, down 22 percent), Germany (77,000 NT, down 46 percent), Taiwan (76,000 NT, up 8 percent) and Vietnam (60,000 NT, down 24 percent). Through the first five months of 2019, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,291,000 NT, down 16 percent from the same period last year), Japan (610,000 NT, no change) and Germany (530,000 NT, down 4 percent).
Published in the July 2019 Edition