Steel Products Prices North America

AISI: Steel Import Permits Down in August

September 10, 2020

Steel import permit applications for August totaled 1,394,000 net tons—a 30.5 percent decrease from the 2,006,000 permit tons recorded in July and a 48.4 percent decrease from the July final imports total of 2,703,000, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute, based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.

Import permit tonnage for finished steel in August was 1,231,000, down 10.8 percent from the final imports total of 1,380,000 in July.

For the first eight months of 2020 (including August SIMA permits and July final imports), total steel imports equaled 16,494,000 tons, down 20.3 percent from the same period in 2019. Finished steel imports have declined by 26.6 percent to 11,253,000 tons so far this year. Finished steel imports had a market share of 18 percent in August and 19 percent year-to-date.

Finished steel imports with large increases in August permits vs. the July final imports included sheets and strip electrolytic galvanized (up 139 percent), steel piling (up 64 percent), line pipe (up 33 percent) and cut length plates (up 37 percent). Products with significant year-to date increases vs. the same period in 2019 included tin free steel (up 30 percent) and light shapes bars (up 14 percent).

In August, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (167,000 tons, up 5 percent from July final), Japan (71,000 tons, up 41 percent), Germany (49,000 ton, up 5 percent), Taiwan (45,000 tons, up 20 percent) and China (31,000 tons, down 52 percent).

Through the first eight months of 2020, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,148,000 tons, down 24 percent from the same period last year), Japan (555,000 tons, down 41 percent) and Germany (472,000 ton, down 39 percent).