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 2021 totaled 2,719,155 mt. This was a 4.9 percent decrease from the 2,859,231 mt in final census data totals recorded in November but a 100.3 percent increase from the 1,357,255 mt in census data totals recorded in December 2020.
In December, import permits for flat steel products totaled 1,148,168 mt, down 17.6 percent from November’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 379,769 mt, down 22.9 percent from November; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 425,946 mt, up 10.6 percent from November; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 662,149 mt, up 32.3 percent from November.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in December were Mexico (492,343 mt), Canada (448,584 mt), Brazil (320,317 mt), Korea (238,476 mt), and Russia (152,835 mt).