The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that for the month of January 2013, US steel mills shipped 8,210,726 net tons, a 9.7 percent increase from the 7,483,120 net tons shipped in the previous month, December 2012, and a 3.4 percent decrease from the 8,497,932 net tons shipped in January 2012.
Shipments in January were 2 percent above the 2012 monthly average of 8 million net tons and the highest monthly shipment tonnage since the 8.4 million tons shipped in August 2012. A comparison of January shipments to the previous month of December shows the following changes: cold rolled sheet shipments up 15 percent; hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip shipments rose up 12 percent and hot rolled sheet were 1 percent.