Washington,
D.C. – 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
June totaled 2,722,000 net tons (NT)*. This was a 2.9% increase from the
2,645,000 permit tons recorded in May and a 0.5% decrease from the May
preliminary imports total of 2,736,000. Import permit tonnage for finished
steel in June was 2,124,000, down 9.0% from the preliminary imports total of
2,334,000 in May. For the first six months of 2022 (including June SIMA permits
and May preliminary imports), total and finished steel imports were 16,671,000
NT and 13,339,000 NT, up 13.7% and 33.8%, respectively, from the same period in
2021. The estimated finished steel import market share in June was 24% and is
24% year-to-date (YTD).
Steel
imports with large increases in June permits vs. May preliminary imports
include ingots and billets and slabs (up 49%), line pipe (up 25%), heavy
structural shapes (up 20%), sheets and strip all other metallic coated (up 19%)
and oil country goods (up 18%). Products with significant year-to date (YTD)
increases vs. the same period in 2021 include wire rods (up 95%), oil country
goods (up 73%), standard pipe (up 66%), cold rolled sheets (up 57%) and line
pipe (up 46%).
In June,
the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (574,000 NT, down
9% from May preliminary), Mexico (520,000 NT, up 8%), South Korea (336,000 NT,
up 44%), Brazil (223,000 NT, up 75%) and Russia (123,000 NT, up 521%). Through
the first six months of 2022, the largest suppliers were Canada (3,517,000 NT,
no change from the same period last year), Mexico (2,954,000 NT, up 40%) and
Brazil (1,578,000 NT, down 39%).
*Note that import
permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications for licenses to
import steel 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