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 August 2021 totaled 2,366,093 mt. This was a 15.3 percent decrease from the 2,794,538 mt in final census data totals recorded in July but a 101.3 percent increase from the 1,175,573 mt in census data totals recorded in August 2020.
In August, import permits for flat steel products totaled 1,053,471 mt, down 1.9 percent from July’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 362,709 mt, down 10.9 percent from July; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 361,803 mt, up 6.8 percent from July; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 509,980 mt, down 38.0 percent from July.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in August were Canada (557,904 mt), Mexico (329,369 mt), Brazil (302,952 mt), Korea (195,341 mt), and Russia (140,225 mt).