Import permits for finished steel up 11 percent in January

Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that steel import permit applications for the month of January totaled 2,011,000 net tons (NT).

This is the first time the applications have broken the two million ton mark since last September. This was an 8.6 percent increase from the 1,852,000 permit tons recorded in December and an 11 percent increase from December preliminary imports total of 1,811,000 NT.

Import permit tonnage for finished steel in January was 1,602,000 NT, up 11 percent from the preliminary imports total of 1,445,000 NT in December. January 2011 total and finished steel import permit tons would annualize at 24,128,000 NT and 19,226,000 NT, up 1 percent and 2 percent, respectively, from the 23,868,000 NT and 18,787,000 NT imported in 2010.