US steel import permits increased by 17.3pc to 1.5mn nt (1.4mn mt) in September from 1.2mn nt a month earlier, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
September’s steel permit tons increased by 7.2pc to 1.5mn nt compared to 1.4mn nt in August, AISI stated, citing Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data.
Import permit tonnage for finished steel declined by 3.2pc in September to 1.14mn nt from 1.17mn nt in August.
In the January to September period, total steel imports fell by 20.7pc to 17.9mn n,t and finished steel imports declined by 26.8pc to 12.3mn nt compared to the same nine-month period in 2019.
The increase in September permits for finished steel imports over the previous month was mainly driven by a 138pc rise in structural shapes, 76pc growth in steel pilings, a 22pc increase in hot rolled sheets, a 14pc rise in wire rods, and an 11pc growth in galvanized sheets and strips, AISI stated. Tin-free steel and light shape bars were up annually by 24pc and 18pc, respectively, in the first nine months of the year.
Applications for finished steel import permits in September over August from South Korea were down by 14pc to 97,000nt, while Germany’s rose by 10pc to 55,000nt. Applications from Japan were up by 18pc to 52,000nt, and applications from Taiwan and Brazil respectively surged by 41pc and 523pc to 47,000nt and 44,000nt.
In the January to September period, the largest offshore finished steel suppliers were South Korea at 1.4mn nt, which declined by 27pc from a year earlier; Japan at 581,000nt, which declined by 43pc; and Germany at 528,000nt, which sunk by 37pc, AISI reported.