Steel figures in US show week-on-week decline

Steel mill production data gathered by the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) shows in the week ending Aug. 26, domestic steel output checked in at more than 1.73 million tons.

That number represents a 0.8 percent increase from the same period in the previous year, although it is down 1.3 percent from the previous week (ending August 19), when output was more than 1.75 million tons.

Although weekly steel output rose year on year, the AISI capability utilization (capacity) rate actually dipped year on year., from 78.0 percent in late August 2022 to 76.2 percent this year. The circumstance is in part because of new capacity coming online in the United States electric arc furnace (EAF) mill sector.

Year-to-date production through Aug. 26 stands at slightly more than 58 million tons, with a yearly average mill capacity rate of 75.9 percent. Total output is down 1.9 percent from more than 59.2 million tons at the same time last year, when the capacity rate during that stretch was 79.7 percent.

With domestic steel mill output has been slightly down this year, the nation’s appetite for imported steel also took a step backward in July. According to AISI, U.S. buyers brought in 15.2 percent less finished steel this July compared with the previous month.

“Total and finished steel imports are down 10.7 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively, year to date versus 2022,” AISI says in a late-August statement, adding that finished steel import market share was an estimated 21 percent in July and estimates a figure of 22 percent for the first seven months of this year.

Among the five largest exporters of steel to the U.S., four made reduced shipments in July compared with June: Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea. Only Japan, the fifth-leading supplier, shipped more steel to the U.S., with its 122,000 tons shipped representing a 50 percent increase from the previous month.

In the scrap market, the August steel landscape (combined with restrained scrap supplies) seems to have yielded some stability in ferrous scrap prices.

Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) price figures covering the period from July 21 to Aug. 20 show the RMDAS prompt industrial composite grade staying flat at exactly $460 per ton, while the average purchase price for No. 2 shredded scrap rose by just $3 per ton during the time frame. RMDAS is operated by Pittsburgh-based Management Science Associates (MSA), which collects scrap transaction figures from domestic steel mills.

While mills in the U.S. were paying stable prices for those two grades, they did have to open their wallets a little wider in late July and early August for No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS). According to RMDAS, mills paid an average of $22 more per ton for No. 1 HMS in late July and early August compared with late June and early July.

Along with the No. 1 HMS rebound, shredder operators have been reporting decreased flows into their yards this summer, which could be a reflection of suppliers in the small dealer and auto dismantler sectors holding onto inventory in anticipation of higher scale prices arriving eventually.