By Paul Ploumis
July 11, 2017 04:00:44 AM
ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The most recent data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) indicates that steel shipments by the US mills jumped higher by 3.1% over the previous month. However, the shipments remained more or less flat when compared with the same month a year before.
In May this year, US steel mills shipped 7,660,969 net tons, modestly higher by 3.1% when matched with 7,428,080 net tons shipped during April 2017. Year-on-year, the steel shipments remained largely unchanged. The shipments had totaled 7,661,979 net tons in May 2016. Shipments of Hot Rolled and Cold Rolled steel increased considerably in May ’17. When matched with the prior month, shipments of hot rolled sheets increased by nearly 4%. The shipment of cold rolled sheets was also up by 4%. Meantime, the shipment of hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip remained flat over the previous month.
The steel shipments during the initial five months of 2017 totaled 37,722,240 net tons. The cumulative steel shipments during Jan-May ’17 are up by 3.3% when matched with the shipments during the corresponding five-month period in 2016. The shipments had totaled 36,509,450 for the first five months of 2016.
Meantime, the weekly statistics released by the steel body indicates that raw steel production by the country increased marginally by 0.9% during the week ending on July 8th, 2017.
The domestic raw steel output during the week ending July 10th totaled 1,733,000 net tons. The AISI data indicates that the US raw steel production has increased marginally by 0.9% during the week. This is in comparison with the previous week (ie., the week ended July 1st) production figures of 1,717,000 net tons. Also, the production recorded 4% jump when matched with same period the previous year, when production had totaled only 1,667,000 net tons.
The capability utilization rate of US steel makers was 74.3% during the week ended July 10, 2017. The capacity utilization rate has increased when compared with 73.6% during the previous week (ie., the week ending July 1st). Also, capacity utilization rate was up significantly when compared with the rate of 71.3% during same week the previous year.
The district wise crude steel production during the week is as follows: North East- 215,000 net tons, Great Lakes-654,000 net tons, Midwest-163,000 net tons, Southern-630,000 net tons and Western-73,000 net tons.
The year-to-date crude steel output through July 10th this year totaled 46,803,000 net tons. When matched with the production of 45,792,000 net tons during the same period last year, the output has increased by 2.2%. The capacity utilization rate averaged at 72.4% during this period.
