Based on the US Department of Commerce’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, steel import permit applications for the month of January 2021 totaled 1,929,117 mt. This was a 42.2 percent increase from the 1,356,736 mt in preliminary census data totals recorded in December but a 32.7 percent decrease from the 2,865,438 mt in census data totals recorded in January 2020.
In January, import permits for flat steel products totaled 549,743 mt, down 17.2 percent from December’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 300,073 mt, up 15.9 percent from December; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 201,983 mt, down 19.9 percent from December; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 788,953 mt, up 512.5 percent from December.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in January were Brazil (525,005 mt), Canada (480,023 mt), Mexico (297,712 mt), Korea (113,427 mt), and Russia (82,827 mt).