U.S. Department of Commerce considers extension of steel import inspection mechanism

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) International Trade Administration is currently seeking public comment on the proposed extension of the steel import monitoring and analysis system to March 21, 2017.

According to the SIMA system, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) requested that steel import licenses be obtained through an online system to complete the importation of certain steel products into the United States. According to the automatic issuance of licenses, they are collected into weekly import data and published on the publicly visible “Steel Import Monitoring System” to provide interested parties with valuable data on US steel trade and market conditions. ITA said that the extension of the project will continue its ability to track the import of certain steel products into the United States in time and allow the public to understand the import data about seven weeks before the US Bureau of Statistics publishes complete trade data.

ITA believes that extending the SIMA system will not have a significant economic impact on most companies. It also pointed out that the relevant companies are already familiar with the system and, in most cases, brokerage companies will apply for permits on behalf of steel importers. In addition, there are no fees for registering a company account for applying for a license, or for applying for a paper license. Each license form usually takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and it also covers a large amount of information in the import brief required by CBP.

A quick review of existing SIMA data shows that steel products imported from mainland China have not experienced unusually large growth in recent months. The situation of US steel products imported from mainland China is complex. Compared with July 2011, July 2012 decreased by 23.5%; August 2012 and August 2011 increased by 36.4%; September 2012 and 2011 Compared with September, it decreased by 5.9%; October 2012 increased by 13.9% compared with October 2011.