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 2021 totaled 2,468,993 mt. This was a 43.1 percent increase from the 1,725,389 mt in census data totals recorded in February and a 54.8 percent increase from the 1,595,222 mt in census data totals recorded in March 2020.
In March, import permits for flat steel products totaled 901,889 mt, up 22.9 percent from February’s data; import permits for long steel products totaled 375,821 mt, up 23.7 percent from February; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 321,381 mt, up 43.4 percent from February; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 741,441 mt, up 81.7 percent from February.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in March were Canada (565,028 mt), Brazil (343,553 mt), Mexico (456,411 mt), Korea (267,982 mt), and Russia (90,101 mt).