Steel mills in the US shipped around 6.52mn nt (5.91mn mt) of steel in August, down by 22.9pc from 8.47mn nt shipped during the same month last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
Steel shipments declined in the first eight months of the year too, falling by 17pc to 53.78mn nt from 64.81mn nt shipped in January-August 2019, according to AISI data.
However, steel shipments rose by 8.2pc in August from 300,000nt shipped a month earlier. Compared with July, cold-rolled sheet shipments rose by 16pc in August, followed by galvanized sheet and strips, which increased by 9pc, and hot-rolled sheets, which rose by 6pc.