Shipments by U.S. Steel Mill Surged 3.2% in June

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest report published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) suggests marginal improvement in shipments by U.S. steel mills during the month of June this year. The shipments were up marginally by 3.2% over the same month a year before. Meantime, the June ’18 shipments registered marginal decline by 0.8% from the prior month.

According to AISI data, the U.S. steel mills shipped 7.988 million net tons in June this year. This is slightly down when compared with the 8.056 million net tons shipped in the previous month. Upon comparison with June ’17 shipments of 7.737 million net tons, the June ’18 shipments ended marginally higher.

Several products recorded month-on-month decline in shipment volumes. The shipments of hot dipped galvanized sheets and strips declined by 2%. Cold rolled sheets too recorded a similar decline by 2% over the previous month. Also, the U.S. steel shipment volume of hot rolled sheets too dropped marginally by 1%.

The cumulative steel mill shipments during the initial six-month period of the year registered notable jump by 4.1% from 45.459 million net tons during Jan-June ’17 to 47.304 million net tons in the opening six months of the current year.

Meantime, the weekly raw steel production data published by AISI states that domestic raw steel production totaled 1.828 million net tons during the week ending on August 4, 2018. The production was up significantly by 4.3% when compared with the 1.752 million net tons production during the corresponding week last year. The Great Lakes region topped among various districts, producing 698,000 net tons, which accounted for more than 38% of the total U.S. production.

The year-to-date production too stood higher by 3.5% from 53.522 million net tons in 2017 to 55.416 million net tons in 2018. The domestic steel mills operated at a higher capability utilization rate of 76.8%, as compared with the rate of 74.4% during the previous year.