The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has reported that steel import permit applications for the month of August totalled 3Mt (net tons), down 9% from 3.3Mt (net tons) recorded in July and a 7% down from July’s preliminary imports total of 3.2Mt (net tons).
The figures are based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.
Import permit tonnage for finished steel in August was 2.3Mt (net tons), down 9% from the preliminary imports total of 2.5Mt (net tons) in July.
For the first eight months of 2015 (including August SIMA and July Preliminary), total and finished steel imports were 27.9Mt (net tons) and 22.7Mt (net tons) respectively, down 2% and up 6% from the same period in 2014.
The estimated finished steel import market share in August was 26% and is 30% year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in August permits versus the July preliminary included wire rods (up 36%), tin plate (up 21%) and oil country goods (up 11%).
Products with significant YTD increases versus the same period in 2014 include reinforcing bar (up 46%), line pipe (up 43%), standard pipe (up 30%), tin plate (up 20%), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanised (up 18%), wire drawn (up 11%) and cold rolled sheets (up 10%).
In August, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (317kt net tons), up 3% from July Preliminary), Japan (220kt net tons, up 23%), Brazil (181kt net tons, up 92%), China (172kt, down 39%) and Turkey (141kt net tons, down 38%). The largest offshore suppliers during the first eight months of 2015 were South Korea (3.6Mt net tons) up 2% from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1.9Mt, net tons, up 51%) and China (1.9Mt, net tons, down 2%).