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 April 2021 totaled 2,224,606 mt. This was a 6.1 percent increase from the 2,096,028 mt in census data totals recorded in March but an 11.8 percent decrease from the 2,523,359 mt in census data totals recorded in April 2020.
In April, import permits for flat steel products totaled 779,825 mt, down 10.9 percent from March’s data; import permits for long steel products totaled 360,364 mt, down 8.5 percent from March; import permits for pipe and tube products totaled 271,206 mt, up 20.9 percent from March; and import permits for semi-finished products totaled 687,744 mt, up 48.4 percent from March.
The largest sources of steel import permit applications in April were Canada (511,569 mt), Brazil (443,187 mt), Mexico (366,573 mt), Korea (194,677 mt), and Japan (74,403 mt).