Steel Products
Flat Rolled Shipments down 5.6% During 1st Half 2013
Written by Brett Linton
August 12, 2013
By Peter Wright
Shipments of sheet steel products in the 2nd quarter averaged 4,114,539 tons / month, down from 4,138,875 in the 1st quarter, 0.6 percent, and down by 4.8 percent from Q2 2012. Year to date (YTD) shipments of all sheet products through the first half were 24,682,298 tons, down by 5.6 percent from H1 2012. The only product with a shipment increase YTD was hot rolled, up 2.2 percent. Table 1 shows the performance of all sheet categories, YTD and on three month and twelve month comparisons.
To give a true picture of where shipments have been and the direction they are headed, we believe it is necessary to use both a detailed table and a longer term graph. The graph, Figure 1 shows that following the post recession recovery, hot rolled has been little changed for two years.
Shipments of hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip declined strongly in Q2 through Q4 last year but have made up a third of that loss this year. All coated products combined, including HDG, EG and other metallic which is mostly Galvalume totaled 1,538,341 tons in Q2 2013, down by 7.8 percent from Q2 2012.
Cold rolled has been on a downward trend for twelve months. These figures are shipments to domestic locations plus exports based on the AISI AIS10 and Commerce Department trade reports.
Brett Linton
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