AISI Points to Substantial Surge in Steel Import Permits

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) published most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, which signals substantial rise in steel import permit applications in the month of July this year.

Based on Commerce Department data, the permit applications totalled 2.007 million net tons in July 2020. This is significantly higher by 20.5% when matched with 1.666 million net tons permit tons recorded in the prior month. When compared with June 2020 preliminary imports of 1.391 million net tons, the July 2020 steel import permit tonnage was up by approximately 44%, AISI data said.

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In July, the import permit tonnage for finished steel totalled 1.219 million net tons, down by 6.9% from the preliminary imports total of 1.310 million net tons in the month of June this year. Reinforcing bars reported largest increase in July permits over the prior month, surging higher by 71%. The import permits for tin plate and tin free steel too were up by 49% and 48% respectively.

The total steel imports during the initial seven-month period of the current year stood at 14.394 million net tons, down by nearly 23% from the prior year. Meantime, finished steel imports in Jan-Jul ’20 were down sharply by 27% from the same period in 2019. Tin free steel imports reported 27% surge in year-to-date imports in 2020. The other product to report notable YTD increase was light shapes bars, whose imports were up by 14% from Jan-Jul ’19.