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 December 2022 totaled 2,012,459 mt. This was a 10.2 percent increase from the 1,826,546 mt in final census data totals recorded in November but a 23.2 percent decrease from the 2,620,324 mt in census data totals recorded in December 2021.
In December, import permits for flat steel products totaled 744,950 mt, up 0.2 percent from November’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 364,202 mt, up 7.2 percent from November; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 545,889 mt, up 19.3 percent from November; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 294,056 mt, up 36.9 percent from November.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in December were Canada (462,842 mt), Mexico (378,206 mt), South Korea (189,104 mt), Japan (97,811 mt); and Germany (67,864 mt).