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 March 2023 totaled 2,454,282 mt. This was an 18.0 percent increase from the 2,079,105 mt in final census data totals recorded in February but a 12.6 percent decrease from the 2,807,053 mt in census data totals recorded in March 2022.
In March, import permits for flat steel products totaled 799,191 mt, up 21.6 percent from February’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 337,281 mt, down 16.4 percent from February; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 560,153 mt, up 18.7 percent from February; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 686,674 mt, up 44.6 percent from February.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in March were Canada (576,901 mt), Mexico (394,527 mt), Brazil (462,014 mt), South Korea (162,278 mt), and Japan (112,138 mt).