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 December totaled 2,308,000 net tons (NT)*. This was a 14.9 percent increase from the 2,008,000 permit tons recorded in November and a 14.4 percent increase from the November preliminary imports total of 2,018,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in December was 1,743,000, up 17.2 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,487,000 in November. For the full year of 2023 (including December SIMA permits and November preliminary imports), total and finished steel imports were 28,370,000 NT and 21,810,000 NT, down 8.0 percent and 13.7 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2022. The estimated finished steel import market share in December was 21 percent and is 21 percent for the full year of 2023.
Steel imports with large increases in December permits vs. November preliminary imports include oil country goods (up 118 percent), line pipe (up 82 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 57 percent), tin plate (up 42 percent) and hot rolled sheets (up 35 percent). Products with significant increases for the full year of 2023 vs. 2022 include cut lengths plates (up 21 percent), standard rails (up 20 percent) and ingots, billets and slabs (up 17 percent).
In December, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (499,000 NT, down 7 percent from November preliminary), Brazil (447,000 NT, up 18 percent), South Korea (301,000 NT, up 114 percent), Mexico (286,000 NT, up 16 percent) and Germany (99,000 NT, up 90 percent). For the full year of 2023, the largest suppliers were Canada (6,845,000 NT, unchanged from the same period last year), Mexico (4,179,000 NT, down 21 percent) and Brazil (4,054,000 NT, up 58 percent).
*Note that import permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications for licenses to import steel products and are not actual import volumes.