The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Monday that US steel mills shipped 7,380,064 net tons (nt) in May, a 1.7 percent increase from the 7,258,534 nt shipped in April, and up 0.5 percent from May 2010. Year-to-date, the comparison is more dramatic; shipments in the first five months of 2011 were 37,140,749--a 6.3 percent increase over the same period in 2010.
Notable month-on-month changes in May were observed in the flat-rolled sector. Steel mill shipments of cold rolled sheet were up 4 percent; hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip rose 4 percent and hot rolled sheet shipments fell 0.1 percent.