Based on the Commerce Department's most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis data, the American Iron & Steel Institute reported that steel import permit applications for the month of December 2011 totaled 2,208,000 tons. This was a 9% increase from the 2,027,000 tons recorded in November 2011 and a 5% increase from the November preliminary imports total of 2,107,000 tons. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in December was 1,618,000 tons, down 2% from the preliminary imports total of 1,646,000 NT in November 2011.

Full year 2011 total and finished steel import permit tons were 28,646,000 tons and 21,871,000 tons, up 20% and 16%, respectively vs the 23,929,000 tons and 18,857,000 tons imported in 2010. The estimated finished steel import market share in 2011 was 22%, and was 19% in December 2011.

In December 2011, the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were:

Korea - 222,000 tons, up by 15% MoM
Japan - 130,000 tons, up by 13% MoM
Turkey - 100,000 tons, up by 319% MoM
China - 100,000 tons, up by 21% MoM
Germany - 76,000 tons, up by 19% MoM

For full year 2011, the largest offshore suppliers were:

South Korea - 2,856,000 tons, up by 40% YoY
Japan - 1,479,000 tons, up by 12% YoY
China - 1,244,000 tons, up by 45% YoY
Germany - 943,000 tons, up by 7% YoY
Turkey - 750,000 tons, up by 29% YoY

Finished steel import permits for products that registered large increases in December vs the November preliminary include reinforcing bar (up 101%), sheet and strip all other metallic coated (up 45%), wire rods (up 38%) and mechanical tubing (up 16%). For full year 2011, products that saw significant increases vs 2010 include cut length plate (up 55%), mechanical tubing (up 44%), plates in coils (up 34%), line pipe (up 33%), sheet and strip, all other metallic coated (up 32%), reinforcing bar (up 27%), hot rolled bars (up 26%) and oil country goods (up 23%).

Mr Thomas J Gibson president & CEO of AISI said that "While domestic steel production and utilization both increased in 2011 and while December SIMA finished steel import tons were the lowest since February of that year 2011 can best be characterized as a year of slow and fragile recovery. Domestic capacity utilization averaged only around 75% in 2011, while finished steel import market share rose to 22%, and finished steel import tonnage increased by more than 3 million tons, or roughly 16% vs the prior year. Year over year import increases of 30-50 percent in plate and certain other products, combined with continued increases in imports from China and other Asian countries, remain a cause of concern. Looking ahead to 2012, continued improvements in domestic steel market conditions will again depend on ensuring that US producers are not further injured by surges of dumped and subsidized imports."