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 September 2021 totaled 2,598,989 mt. This was a 3.2 percent increase from the 2,517,852 mt in final census data totals recorded in August and a 126.8 percent increase from the 1,145,779 mt in census data totals recorded in September 2020.
In September, import permits for flat steel products totaled 987,696 mt, down 14.2 percent from August’s census data; import permits for long steel products totaled 440,164 mt, up 16.1 percent from August; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 442,383 mt, up 42.6 percent from August; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 648,097 mt, up 20.9 percent from August.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in September were Canada (500,187 mt), Brazil (429,237 mt), Mexico (363,468 mt), Korea (251,459 mt), and Turkey (102,111 mt).