U.S. Steel Import Permits Witnessed Rapid Decline in August

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data published by the U.S. Department of Commerce suggests rapid fall in steel import permit applications for the month of August this year.

As reported by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), the import permit applications totaled 2.947 million net tons, down significantly by 8% when compared with 3.204 million net tons in the prior month. The permit applications stood marginally lower by 1% when matched with the preliminary steel imports during July this year. The import permit tonnage for finished steel, at 1.940 million net tons, was down sharply by 11% from July ’18 preliminary imports, AISI data said.

The country’s steel imports totaled 23.809 million net tons during the initial eight months of the year. This is inclusive of the August SIMA permits and July preliminary import data. The finished steel imports totaled 18.131 million net tons during Jan-Aug ’18. The total and finished steel imports dropped by 10.5% and 11.4% respectively over the same period in 2017.

The SIMA August data suggests significant jump in import permits for wire rods, whose permit applications surged by 74%. Similarly, the permits of cut length plates and drawn wires too were up significantly by 29% and 12%.

The permit applications for steel imports from Turkey shot up by 122% over the previous year to 164,000 net tons. The other offshore countries to report notable volume of steel import permit applications were South Korea (162,000 net tons) and Germany (119,000 net tons).