Steel Product Shipments and Inventories Through July

U.S. steel product shipments grew for the third straight month in July, up 2.8% from the prior month. Following some irregularity to start the year after bottoming out in May 2020, steel product shipments have been on a steady upward trend.

Mill outages, factory curtailments, seasonal disruptions, and COVID-related closures slowed steel products’ shipments to historic lows in 2020 with little resurgence at the beginning of 2021. Shipments of manufactured durable goods saw a similar trend over the same period. The trend carried through much of the first quarter, though the marketplace has been on a steady rise since.

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

David Schollaert

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