US Finished Steel Import Market Share Reached 27% in August

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) suggests marginal rise of 0.7% in U.S. steel import permit applications for the month of August this year, upon comparison with the prior month. The steel import applications for the month totaled 3,572,000 net tons (NT) as compared with 3,549,000 NT in July.

The import permit tonnage of finished steel totaled 2,646,000 net tons in August this year, down significantly by 7.7% when matched with the preliminary imports total of 2,868,000 net tons in July this year.

The finished steel products which recorded highest surge in import permits during August when compared to July preliminary import was structural pipe and tube, whose permits recorded 54% jump. The permit applications of tin plates too were up by 25%. Drawn wire reported 18% jump in volume of import permits. The largest number of import permit applications was for South Korea. The permit applications from the country surged higher by 24% from July preliminary to total 418,000 NT. South Korea was followed by Germany and Turkey with imports permits of 141,000 NT and 132,000 NT respectively.

The steel products which recorded largest increase in import permits till date this year when compared with the corresponding eight-month period in 2016 was oil country goods. The import permits of oil country goods surged higher by 257% during this period, followed by standard pipe and line pipes with year-on-year increases of 47% and 45% respectively. Through the initial eight months of 2017, South Korea with 2.683 Million NT was the largest offshore supplier, followed by Turkey (1.855 Million NT) and Japan (1.044 Million NT) respectively.

Meantime, AISI data indicates that the weekly raw steel production by the country increased marginally by 0.4% during the week ending on September 2, 2017. The total domestic raw steel output during the week was 1,747,000 net tons, as compared with the previous week production figures of 1,740,000 net tons. However, the weekly production has surged higher considerably by 8.6% in comparison with production of 1,609,000 net tons during same week the previous year.

The capability utilization rate of US steel makers was 74.9% during the week, up slightly when compared with the utilization rate of 74.6% during the previous week. Also, the rate stood higher when matched with 68.8% during same week the previous year.

The year-to-date crude steel output through September 2, 2017 totaled 60,900,000 net tons, up by nearly 3.2% when matched with the output of 59,025,000 net tons during the same period last year. The capacity utilization rate during the period stood higher at 74.6% as compared with the rate of 72.1% during the corresponding period last year.