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 November 2021 totaled 2,429,496 mt. This was a 2.3 percent decrease from the 2,487,042 mt in final census data totals recorded in October but a 95.2 percent increase from the 1,244,888 mt in census data totals recorded in November 2020.
In November, import permits for flat steel products totaled 1,140,269 mt, down 10.1 percent from October’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 471,062 mt, up 6.7 percent from October; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 392,118 mt, up 10.7 percent from October; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 334,756 mt, down 1.8 percent from October.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in November were Canada (432,342 mt), Mexico (405,319 mt), Korea (199,320 mt), Vietnam (173,287 mt), and Russia (148,109 mt).