Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the month of January totaled 2,629,000 net tons (NT). This was an 8 percent increase from the 2,438,000 permit tons recorded in December and up 12 percent from the December preliminary imports total of 2,339,000 NT. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in January was 2,168,000T, up 31 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,654,000 NT in December. January 2013 total and finished steel import permit tons would annualize at 31,546,000 NT and 26,014,000 NT, down 5 percent and up 1 percent, respectively, vs. the 33,348,000 NT and 25,699,000 NT imported in 2012. The estimated finished steel import market share in January was 24 percent.
Finished steel imports with large increases in January permits vs. the December preliminary include reinforcing bars (up 143 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 136 percent), sheets and strip galvanized electrolytic (up 103 percent), oil country goods (up 89 percent) and sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 66 percent).
In January, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (368,000 NT, up 174 percent from December), China (184,000 NT, up 12 percent), Turkey (160,000 NT, up 227 percent), Japan (137,000 NT, up 71 percent) and Germany (71,000 NT, down 23 percent).