The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Tuesday that for the month of July 2012, US steel mills shipped 7,910,486 net tons (nt), a 1.3 percent decrease from the 8,016,834 nt shipped in the previous month, June 2012, and a 6.8 percent increase from the 7,409,450 nt shipped in July 2011. Shipments year-to-date in 2012 are 58,027,590 nt, an 11.2 percent increase versus 2011 shipments of 52,189,307 nt for the first seven months.
Shipments in July were the lowest monthly amount in 2012. The July tonnage of 7,910,486 nt was 7.1 percent lower than the peak 2012 monthly shipments of 8,512,825 nt in March. Raw steel production also recently experienced its 2012 low in weekly production with production for the week of September 8, 2012 at 73.3 percent, the first 2012 weekly utilization figure below 74 percent.
A month-to-month comparison of shipments shows that hot rolled sheet shipments increased 5 percent, cold rolled sheet shipments fell 2 percent and hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip were down 5 percent.