U.S. Steel Import Permits Recorded Massive Jump in April

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data published by the U. S. Commerce Department indicates notable jump in steel import permits during April 2018, reported American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

During April this year, the import permit applications totaled 3.967 million net tons (NT). The permit applications surged higher by 11.2% when compared with the permit tons recorded during March 2018. The import permit applications had totaled 3.566 million NT in March this year. When compared with the March final imports total of 3.335 million NT, the April ’18 permit tons were up by 19%. It must be noted that the U.S. steel permits had recorded 42% surge in March this year.

The import permit tonnage for finished steel was 2.923 million NT in April this year, significantly higher when matched with the final imports total of 2.485 million NT. Finished steel accounted for 29% share of the total imports. The finished steel products which recorded the highest increase in import tonnage was Line Pipes, the imports of which increased sharply by 75% when compared with March ’18 final imports. The imports of Heavy Structural Shapes were up by 69%. The other finished steel products to report considerable jump in import permits were sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 65%), reinforcing bars (up 59%), tin plate (up 59%) and hot rolled bars (up 40%).

ALSO READ: Steel Mill Shipments by the U.S. Soared 8% in March

In April, the largest number of import permit applications was for South Korea. The permit applications from the country skyrocketed by nearly 37% from March final to total 434,000 NT. The import permits from Turkey and Vietnam totaled 201,000 NT and 131,000 NT respectively.

The cumulative finished steel imports during the initial four months of 2018 totaled 9.760 million NT, marginally higher by 3.0% over the same period in 2017. The products that witnessed considerable jump in imports during Jan-Apr ’18 were plates in coils, hot rolled sheets, line pipe, mechanical tubing and oil country goods. The largest offshore suppliers during this period were South Korea, Turkey and Japan.

The combined steel imports during Jan-Apr ’18 totaled 12.664 million NT.