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 May 2022 totaled 2,368,411 mt. This was a 4.5 percent decrease from the 2,479,186 mt in final census data totals recorded in April and a 3.4 percent increase from the 2,291,613 mt in census data totals recorded in May 2021.
In May, import permits for flat steel products totaled 937,293 mt, down 6.6 percent from April’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 603,547 mt, up 18.6 percent from April; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 440,637 mt, up 0.1 percent from April; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 286,403 mt, down 29.5 percent from April.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in May were Canada (541,903 mt), Mexico (418,850 mt), South Korea (218,359 mt), Turkey (138,201 mt), and Brazil (102,345 mt).