Steel Import Permits Surged in January: AISI

Reinforcing bars reported largest increase in January permits over the prior month, surging higher by almost 178%.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The most current Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) shows a sharp rise in steel import permit applications in January of this year.

In January 2025, there were 2.922 million net tons of permit applications, according to data from the Commerce Department. When compared to the 2.369 million net tonnage permit tons registered in the previous month, this is a considerable increase of about 23.4%. According to AISI data, the December 2024 steel import permit tonnage was a considerable decrease of nearly 36.8% when compared to the December 2024 final imports of 2.135 million net tons.

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Compared to the final import total of 1.822 million net tons in December 2024, the import permit tonnage for finished steel in January of this year was 2.227 million net tons, a 22.2% increase.

Reinforcing bars reported largest increase in January permits over the prior month, surging higher by almost 178%. The import permits for heavy structural shapes as well as blooms, billets & slabs were up by 174% and 122% respectively. The other products with notable month-on-month increases include oil country goods and line pipes, whose imports surged higher by 72% and 66% respectively.

Canada submitted the most applications for finished steel import permits for offshore nations in January 2025, followed by South Korea, Germany, Brazil, and Mexico.