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 2,172,745 mt. This was a 0.5 percent increase from the 2,161,687 mt in final census data totals recorded in April but a 12.9 percent decrease from the 2,494,785 mt in census data totals recorded in May 2021.
In May, import permits for flat steel products totaled 831,476 mt, up 22.9 percent from April’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 368,801 mt, down 20.0 percent from April; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 432,188 mt, down 20.5 percent from April; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 466,196 mt, up 19.6 percent from April.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in May were Canada (568,636 mt), Brazil (282,584 mt), Mexico (254,777 mt), South Korea (155,539 mt), and Japan (102,056 mt).