Washington, D.C. – Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the month of October totaled 1,591,000 net tons (NT)*. This was a 3.7% decrease from the 1,652,000 permit tons recorded in September and a 2.0% increase from the September final imports total of 1,560,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in October was 1,237,000, up 4.5% from the final imports total of 1,184,000 in September. For the first ten months of 2025 (including October SIMA permits and September final imports), total and finished steel imports were 21,888,000 NT and 16,324,000 NT, down 11.3% and 14.5%, respectively, from the same period in 2024. The estimated finished steel import market share in October was 15% and is 19% year-to-date (YTD).
Steel imports with large increases in October permits vs. September final imports include reinforcing bars (up 69%), wire rods (up 66%), sheet and strip all other metallic coated (up 32%), hot rolled sheets (up 31%) and oil country goods (up 22%). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2024 include stainless pipe and tube (up 43%), tin plate (up 32%), oil country goods (up 18%), line pipe (up 17%) and wire rods (up 16%).
In October, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (316,000 NT, up 2% from September final imports), Brazil (229,000 NT, up 31%), Mexico (146,000 NT, down 1%), South Korea (116,000 NT, down 53%) and Taiwan (101,000 NT, up 150%). Through the first ten months of 2025, the largest suppliers were Canada (4,038,000 NT, down 27%), Brazil (3,556,000 NT, down 13%) and Mexico (2,514,000 NT, down 14%).
*Note that import permits data are counts of tonnages requested in applications for licenses to import steel products and are not actual import volumes. For a number of reasons, permit tonnages may understate or overstate actual import volumes for the month, preliminary estimates of which will be available later this month.
