The Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has reported that steel import permit applications for August totaled 3,009,000 net tons (NT), a 9 percent decrease from the 3,315,000 permit tons recorded in July. (Monthly permit numbers provided to date may be understated, as entry documentation may be submitted up to 10 days after market entry.) The figures are based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.
For the first eight months of 2015, total and finished steel imports were 27,972,000 NT and 22,779,000 NT, respectively, down 2 percent and up 6 percent from the same period in 2014. The estimated finished steel import market share in August was 26 percent and is 30 percent year-to-date (YTD).
In August, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (317,000 NT, up 3 percent from July Preliminary), Japan (220,000 NT up 23 percent), Brazil (181,000 NT, up 92 percent), China (172,000, down 39 percent) and Turkey (141,000 NT, down 38 percent). Through the first eight months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,683,000 NT, up 2 percent from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1,978,000 NT, up 51 percent) and China (1,977,000, down 2 percent).
Source: Recycling Today