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 January 2019 totaled 2,708,506 mt. This was a 4.3 percent increase from the 2,596,144 mt in permits recorded in December 2018 and a 3.7 percent increase from the 2,611,857 mt recorded in January 2018.
In January, steel products with the largest total import permits included blooms, billets and slab at a combined 737,459 mt; OCTG, at 273,248 mt; line pipe, at 259,623 mt; HDG, at 211,833 mt; HRC, at 146,060 mt; and CRC, at 121,591 mt.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in January were Brazil (597,468 mt), Canada (376,817 mt), Korea (295,641 mt), Mexico (280,436 mt), and Russia (129,221 mt).