The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Thursday that steel mill shipments fell 4.3 percent from August to September to 7.95 million net tons (nt). Steel mill shipments in August swelled 12.1 percent from July. Notably, HDG sheet and strip shipments were up 1 percent, hot rolled sheet shipments slipped 1 percent while cold rolled sheet shipments were down 4 percent from August.
September steel mill shipments were still up 11.3 percent from the 7.14 million nt shipped in September 2010' and year-to-date shipments for the first nine months of 2011 are 68.4 million nt, 8.4 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2010.