Steel Shipments by the U.S. Mills Soared 4% in February

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) indicates that steel shipments by the U.S. mills reported 4% surge in February this year. This is when compared with the shipments during the corresponding month a year before. However, upon comparison with the month before, the Feb ’18 steel mill shipments were down by nearly 1.5%. The US steel mill shipments had decline marginally by nearly 1% in January this year.

According to AISI data, the U.S steel mill shipments totaled 7.526 million net tons in February this year. This is slightly lower by 1.5% from the shipments recorded during January. The January 2018 steel shipments by U.S. mills had totaled 7.636 million net tons. However, year-on-year comparison shows that mill steel shipments were modestly up by 4.1% from 7.232 million net tons in February 2017.

Upon comparison with the prior month, several products witnessed significant decline in shipment volumes. The shipments of hot rolled sheets dropped by 5%, whereas cold rolled sheets shipments were down by 3%. The other product to witness notable decline in shipments was hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip, whose shipments were down by 2% compared with January 2018.

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Meantime, the domestic raw steel production during the week ending April 7, 2018 totaled 1.805 million net tons. The capability utilization rate of US steel mills was 77.0% during the week. The current week production represents 4.9% jump from the same period in 2017 and 1.6% jump from the previous week. The district wise crude steel production during the week in thousands of net tons is as follows: North East- 218, Great Lakes-683, Midwest-166, Southern-660 and Western-78.

The year-to-date production through April 7, 2018 was up marginally from 24.089 million net tons in 2017 to 24.397 million net tons in 2018. The capability utilization rate during the year-to-date period was 74.4%.