US Steel Import Permits Declined 2% in April

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): Based on the most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that the U.S. steel import permit applications for the month of April this year totaled 3,433,000 net tons (NT) of steel. The import permits tons recorded 2% decline when compared with 3,504,000 permit tons recorded in March. However, the import permits are up marginally by 1.1% when compared with the March preliminary imports total of 3,396,000 net tons.

The import permit tonnage of finished steel totaled 2,657,000 net tons during April 2017, significantly higher by 5.6% when matched with the preliminary imports total of 2,517,000 net tons in March this year.

Key finished steel products with a significant increase in import permits during April this year when compared to March preliminary import are steel piling (up 100%), oil country goods (up 31%), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 29%), mechanical tubing (up 27%), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 21%), hot rolled bars (up 19%), heavy structural shapes (up 18%) and plates in coils (up 11%).

In April, the largest number of import permit applications were for South Korea (338,000 NT, up 7% from March preliminary), Turkey (284,000 NT, down 5%), Japan (126,000 NT, down 7%), Taiwan (123,000 NT, up 36%) and Germany (117,000 NT, up 27%).

The steel products which recorded significant year-to-date (YTD) increases when compared with the corresponding four-month period in 2016 were oil country goods (up 210%), sheets and strip all other metallic coated (up 43%), cold rolled sheets (up 42%), mechanical tubing (up 32%), tin plate (up 31%), standard pipe (up 30%), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 26%), reinforcing bars (up 18%) and line pipe (up 12%).

For first four months of 2017, the largest overseas suppliers of finished steel to the US were South Korea (1,227,000 NT, down 1% from the same period in 2016), Turkey (1,085,000 NT, up 27%) and Japan (506,000 NT, down 14%).

Meantime, the weekly statistics released by the steel body indicates that raw steel production by the country increased marginally by 2.0% during the week ending on April 29^th, 2017.

The total domestic raw steel output during the week ending April 29^th was 1,750,000 net tons. The AISI data indicates that the US raw steel production has recovered slightly by 2.0% during the week. This is in comparison with the previous week (ie., the week ended April 22^nd)  production figures of 1,715,000 net tons. Also, the weekly production represents modest rise of 3.1% in comparison with production of 1,698,000 net tons during same week the previous year.

The capability utilization rate of US steel makers was 75.1% during the week ended April 29^th, 2017. The capacity utilization rate has increased marginally when compared with 72.6% during the previous week (ie., the week ending April 22^nd). Also, capacity utilization rate was up when compared with the rate of 73.6% during same week the previous year.

The crude steel production by various districts during the week was as follows:- North East (210,000 NT), Great Lakes (692,000 NT), Midwest (152,000 NT), Southern (616,000 NT) and Western (80,000 NT).

The year-to-date crude steel output through April 29^th, 2017 totaled 29,459,000 net tons, up by nearly 3.6% when matched with the output of 28,449,000 net tons during the same period last year. The capacity utilization rate during the period was up considerably from 71.6% a year before to 74.3% during the period ended April 29^th this year.

About AISI

AISI serves as the voice of the North American steel industry in the public policy arena and advances the case for steel in the marketplace as the preferred material of choice. AISI also plays a lead role in the development and application of new steels and steelmaking technology. AISI is comprised of 19 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and approximately 125 associate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry.