Nov '17 Steel Shipments by US Mills Surged 10%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): According to the recent monthly trade data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), the shipment of steel by US mills reported 10% jump in November 2017. This is upon comparison with the Nov ’16 steel shipments. However, the shipments dropped by nearly 4% from the previous month. The steel mill shipments had recorded 13% jump in October.

The steel shipments by the US mills totaled 7,419,946 net tons in November 2017. The shipments registered a rise of 10.3% over the shipments during the same month a year before. The US steel mill shipments had totaled only 6,724,277 net tons in November 2016.

Month-on-month, the shipments declined by 3.8%. The month of October 2017 had registered shipments totaling 7,710,777 net tons. The Nov ’17 shipments of cold rolled sheets were up marginally by almost 1% over the month. On the other hand, hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip shipments tumbled by nearly 4%. The hot rolled sheet shipments too were down 3% when matched with the prior month.

The cumulative steel shipments by the US mills during the initial eleven-month period of 2017 totaled 83,558,470 net tons, higher by 5.3% when compared with the shipments of 79,360,096 net tons during the corresponding eleven-month period in 2016.

The US Finished steel import permits had declined rapidly during November this year.

Meantime, the weekly statistics released by the steel body suggests that raw steel production by the country edged higher marginally by .7% during the week ending on January 6^th, 2018.

The domestic raw steel production totaled 1,649,000 net tons during the week ending January 6, 2018. When compared with the previous month, the raw steel output was up marginally by 0.7%. The output during the week ending December 30, 2017 had totaled 1,637,000 net tons. Also, the production surged higher by nearly 5% when matched with same period the previous year, when production had totaled 1,736,000 net tons.

ALSO READ: US Finished Steel Imports Forecast to Exceed 30 Million NT in 2017

During the week ending January 6^th, the US steel mills operated at a capacity utilization rate of 70.7%. The capacity utilization rate has increased marginally when compared with 70.2% during the previous week (ie., the week ending December 30^th, 2017). Meantime, capacity utilization rate stood significantly lower when compared with the rate of 74.5% during corresponding week the previous year.

The district wise crude steel production during the week is as follows: North East- 215,000 net tons, Great Lakes-640,000 net tons, Midwest-158,000 net tons, Southern-570,000 net tons and Western-66,000 net tons.