US Finished Steel Import Permits Encountered Rapid Decline in November

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) suggests significant decline in steel import permit applications during the month of November this year. The permits were down when compared with the permit tons recorded during the previous month as well as in comparison with the final imports in October.

The steel import permit applications totaled 2,850,000 net tons during November this year, 8.8% lower when compared with the permit tons of 3,123,000 net tons during October this year. Also, the permits were down sharply by 10.5% from the October final imports of 2,554,000 tons. The total steel imports during the year-to-date period were 35,764,000 net tons, higher by almost 18% when compared with the corresponding period last year.

The import permit tonnage for finished steel in November registered a decline of 13.6% from October final imports and had a market share of 25%. For the initial eleven months of 2017, finished steel imports totaled 27,718,000 tons, significantly higher by 14.6% over the previous year. The import market share of finished steel during Jan-Nov ’17 was 27%.

Among various finished steel products, standard rails recorded the highest surge in import permits during November, upon comparison with October final data. The permits rose sharply by 1698%. The other products to report large increases in import permits were hot rolled bars and tin plates, which reported month-on-month jump by 13% and 12% respectively.

The offshore supplier with largest number of finished steel import permit applications during the month was South Korea. However, the permit applications by the country dropped sharply by 45% from October final to total 216,000 NT. The other leading exporters were Germany (171,000 NT) and Japan (110,000 NT).

During the first eleven months of 2017, oil country goods recorded the largest increase in permits, when compared with the corresponding period in 2016. The permits for oil country goods were up by 226%. Line Pipes (up 69%), Standard Pipe (up 41%) and Mechanical Tubing (up 31%) were the other products with large increases year-on-year.

The largest offshore supplier during the eleven-month period of 2017 was South Korea. The import permits from that country increased marginally by 0.6%. Meantime, permits from Turkey witnessed 5% decline over the year to total 2,142,000 NT. In third place was Japan with 1,417,000 NT. The Japanese import permits tumbled by 29% upon comparison with the initial eleven-month period in 2016.