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 2020 totaled 2,107,550 mt. This was a 54.1 percent increase from the 1,367,267 mt in final census data totals recorded in February and a 2.4 percent increase from the 2,057,817 mt in census data totals recorded in March 2019.
In March, steel products with the largest total steel import permits included blooms, billets and slab at a combined 637,360 mt; HDG, at 198,042 mt; OCTG, at 153,677 mt; HRC, at 118,586 mt; CRC, at 103,567 mt; and rebar, at 80,559 mt.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in March were Canada (470,158 mt), Brazil (466,664 mt), Mexico (258,045 mt), Korea (210,685 mt), and Russia (80,056 mt).