The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the month of July totalled 2.28Mt (net tons). This was a 5.7% decrease from the 2.42Mt permit tons recorded in June and a 6.3% increase from the June final imports total of 2.15Mt.*

Import permit tonnage for finished steel in July was 1.93Mt, up 12.9% from the final imports total of 1.71Mt in June. For the first seven months of 2024 (including July SIMA permits and June final imports), total and finished steel imports were 17.62Mt and 13.63Mt, up 1.4% and 2.6%, respectively, from the same period in 2023. The estimated finished steel import market share in July was 22% and is 23% year-to-date (YTD).

Steel imports with large increases in July permits versus June final imports include tin plate (up 124%), cut length plates (up 103%), wire rods (up 87%), heavy structural shapes (up 59%) and cold rolled sheets (up 39%). Products with significant YTD increases versus the same period in 2023 include sheets and strip all other metallic coated (up 71%), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 41%), wire rods (36%), cold rolled sheets (up 28%) and structural pipe and tubing (up 18%).

In July, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (497kt, down 11% from June final), Brazil (339kt, up 9%), South Korea (199kt, down 5%), Mexico (151kt, down 28%) and Japan (139kt, up 65%). Through the first seven months of 2024, the largest suppliers were Canada (3.93Mt, down 6%), Brazil (2.82Mt, up 15%) and Mexico (2.08Mt, down 20%).

* Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.

• Please note that import permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications for licenses to import steel products and are not actual import volumes. For a number of reasons, permit tonnages may understate or overstate actual import volumes for the month, preliminary estimates of which will be available later this month.