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 September totaled 1,650,000 net tons (NT)*. This was a 12.0% decrease from the 1,876,000 permit tons recorded in August and an 11.5% decrease from the August preliminary imports total of 1,864,000. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in September was 1,248,000, down 11.0% from the preliminary imports total of 1,402,000 in August. For the first nine months of 2025 (including September SIMA permits and August preliminary imports), total and finished steel imports were 20,380,000 NT and 15,146,000 NT, down 8.5% and 12.2%, respectively, from the same period in 2024. The estimated finished steel import market share in September was 14% and is 19% year-to-date (YTD).
Steel imports with large increases in September permits vs. August preliminary imports include sheet and strip hot dipped electrolytic galvanized (up 208%), line pipe (up 48%), structural pipe and tubing (up 41%), tin plate (up 14%) and sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 13%). Products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2024 include stainless pipe and tube (up 48%), tin plate (up 39%), line pipe (up 23%), wire rods (up 18%) and tin free steel (up 17%).
In September, the largest steel import permit applications were for Canada (318,000 NT, up 5% from August preliminary), Brazil (241,000 NT, down 10%), South Korea (233,000 NT, up 32%), Mexico (127,000 NT, down 35%) and Germany (87,000 NT, up 15%). Through the first nine months of 2025, the largest suppliers were Canada (3,729,000 NT, down 26%), Brazil (3,393,000 NT, down 9%) and Mexico (2,348,000 NT, down 8%).
*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.
