US steel imports kick off 2017 on a very high note

Based on the latest data analysis, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported an increase in applications for permits to import steel into the United States in January this year. Import permits rose 7.6% in tonnage to 2,927,000 tonnes of steel, up from 2,719,000 tonnes recorded last December. In addition, import permits are 8.5% higher than the total final steel imports in December of 2,698,000 tonnes.

The main finished steel products with a significant increase in import permits during January of this year were: hot rolled strip (up to 89%), standard rails (up to 45%), rebar (up to 43%), standard pipe (up to 39%), sheets and all coated strips (up to 29%), cold-rolled sheets (up to 15%) and wire rod (up to 11%).

In January, the largest number of applications for import permits were issued for South Korea (326,000 tons, up 21% from the final import result in December), Turkey (271,000 tons, up 75%), Taiwan (131,000 tons, up 11%) , Japan (126,000 tons, up 10%) and Vietnam (101,000 tons, up 77%).