US Finished Steel Import Permits Soared 18% in January

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The most recently published Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) suggests that steel import permit applications increased significantly during the opening month of the current year.

The steel import permit applications totaled 2.914 million net tons (NT) during the month of January 2018, higher by nearly 17.7% when matched with the import permit tons of 2.475 million NT recorded during the prior month. The monthly permit applications stood higher by 18.9% when matched with the final imports of 2.450 million NT recorded during December 2017.

The permit applications for finished steel too climbed higher by almost 23% from 1.880 million NT in December last year to 2.306 million NT in Jan ’18. The SIMA data also pegs finished steel import market share at 26% during the month.

The permit applications of sheets and strip all other metallic coatings surged higher by 134% over the Dec ’17 final imports. Reinforcing bars reported 133% jump in permit applications over the month. The other finished steel products to witness notable hump in import permits during the month were oil country goods (+73%), line pipe (+56%) and hot rolled sheets (+24%).

The largest number of import permit applications was for South Korea. The permit applications from the country skyrocketed by nearly 90% from December final to total 362,000 NT. South Korea was followed by Turkey and Japan with import permits totaling 170,000 NT and 135,000 NT respectively.

ALSO READ: US Finished Steel Import Permits Declined Rapidly in December

Meantime, the weekly raw steel production by the country increased marginally by 1.6% over the previous week during the week ending on February 3, 2018 to total 1.747 million NT. This is marginally higher by 0.2% when compared with the production during the corresponding week a year before. The capacity utilization rate jumped higher from 73.8% to 75% week-on-week.

The year-to-date crude steel output through February 3, 2018 totaled 8.269 million NT, down by nearly 2.1% when compared with the output of 8.447 million NT during the similar period in 2017. The capacity utilization rate during the period stood 73.0%, much lower when compared with 74.6% during the year-ago period.