Shipment by US Steel Mills Rose Slightly in July

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The most recent trade data published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) suggests that steel shipments by the US mills recorded marginal increase of nearly 1.7% over the previous year during the month of July this year. However, the shipments witnessed modest decline of 3.3% when matched with the shipments during same month the previous year.

The US steel mills shipped 7,480,241 net tons in July 2017. The shipments were up slightly by nearly 1.7% when matched with 7,352,698 net tons shipped during July last year. On the other hand, shipments recorded 3.3% decline over the previous month. The shipments had totaled 7,736,846 net tons in June this year. Shipments of Hot Rolled Sheets declined sharply by 6% during the month. When matched with the prior month, shipments of cold rolled sheets were down by nearly 4%. Meantime, hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip registered 3% decline in shipments upon comparison with the previous month.

The steel shipments during the initial seven months of 2017 totaled 52,939,327 net tons. The cumulative steel shipments during the initial seven-month period in 2017 were up by 2.8% when matched with the shipments during the corresponding seven-month period in 2016. The shipments had totaled 51,491,101 net tons during January to July in 2016.

Meantime, the weekly statistics released by the steel body suggests that raw steel production by the country dropped slightly by 0.8% during the week ending September 9^th, 2017.

The domestic raw steel output during the week ending September 9^th totaled 1,733,000 net tons. The AISI data indicates that the US raw steel production has declined marginally by 0.8% during the week. This is in comparison with the previous week (ie., the week ending September 2^nd)  production figures of 1,747,000 net tons. On the other hand, the production recorded 8.9% surge when matched with same period the previous year, when production had totaled only 1,591,000 net tons.

The capability utilization rate of US steel makers was 74.3% during the week ended September 9^th, 2017. The capacity utilization rate has dropped marginally when compared with 74.9% during the previous week (ie., the week ending September 2^nd). Meantime, capacity utilization rate was up significantly when compared with the rate of 68.0% during same week the previous year.

The year-to-date crude steel output through September 9, 2017 totaled 62,633,000 net tons. When matched with the production of 52,451,000 net tons during the same period last year, the production has increased by 3.3%. The average capacity utilization rate stood at 74.6% during the year-to-date period.