Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import
Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute
(AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the month
of October totaled 1,643,000 net tons (NT)*. This represents virtually no
change from the 1,642,000 permit tons recorded in September and a 30.8%
increase from the September final imports total of 1,256,000. Import
permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 1,219,000, up 4.4% from
the final imports total of 1,167,000 in September. For the first ten
months of 2020 (including October SIMA permits and September final
imports), total and finished steel imports were 19,290,000 NT and
13,587,000 NT, down 22.2% and 26.0%, respectively, from the same period in
2019. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 17%
and is 18% year-to-date (YTD).
Finished steel imports with large increases in October permits vs.
the September final imports include oil country goods (up 126%), wire rods
(up 59%), reinforcing bars (up 47%), cold rolled sheets (up 45%), heavy
structural shapes (up 42%), cut lengths plates (up 37%), hot rolled bars
(up 25%) and wire drawn (up 15%). Products with significant year-to date (YTD)
increases vs. the same period in 2019 include tin free steel (up 24%) and
light shapes bars (up 19%).
In October, the largest finished steel import permit applications
for offshore countries were for South Korea (139,000 NT, up 12% from
September final), Japan (77,000 NT, up 31%), Germany (62,000 NT, up 21%),
Turkey (42,000 NT, up 544%) and China (24,000 NT, up 22%). Through the
first ten months of 2020, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea
(1,658,000 NT, down 25% from the same period last year), Japan (663,000
NT, down 39%) and Germany (587,000 NT, down 36%).
*Note
that import permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications
for licenses to import steel mill products and are not actual import
volumes. For a number of reasons, permit tonnages may understate or
overstate actual import volumes for the month, preliminary estimates of
which will be available later this month.
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