Steel Import Permit Applications Up in October
WASHINGTON -- Steel import permit applications for October totaled 2.7 million net tons, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute. This marks a 3% increase from the permit tons recorded in September and up 11% from the September preliminary imports total.
Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis data, AISI says that import permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 2.14 million net tons, up 14% from the preliminary imports total of 1.89 million in September.
October total and finished steel import permit tons would annualize at 33.87 million net tons and 26.28 million net tons, up 19% and 20%, respectively, compared with respective figures from last year. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 25%, and it is 24% through 10 months of this year.
Finished steel imports with large increases in October permits versus the September preliminary include reinforcing bars (up 70%), heavy structural shapes (up 68%), line pipe (up 62%), standard rails (up 54%), hot rolled bars (up 22%) and sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 16%). Major products with significant year-to-date increases versus the same period a year ago include reinforcing bars (up 53%), line pipe (up 40%), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 35%), oil country goods (up 29%) and cut lengths plates (up 26%).
In October, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (379,000 net tons, up 28% from September), Japan (182,000, up 13%), China (133,000, up 44%), Germany (115,000, up 15%) and Turkey (94,000, up 136%). Through the first 10 months, the largest offshore suppliers are South Korea (3.16 million net tons, up 30% from the same period in 2011), Japan (1.70 million, up 38%) and China (1.32 million, up 24%).
“Steel imports are surging into the U.S. market and impeding the domestic industry’s full recovery from the economic recession,” said Thomas J. Gibson, AISI president and CEO. “This import surge is not driven by U.S. demand. It is largely the result of government subsidies, irrational capacity expansion, currency manipulation, trade barriers and dumping. We urge our government to take aggressive actions to address this problem before more injury occurs, and to stem the current import surge and address the anti-competitive behavior of our trading partners.”
The American Iron and Steel Institute is a trade association with 25 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and 125 associate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.