US steel shipments declined by 31.5pc to 5.6mn nt in April 2020 compared to 8.2mn nt shipped in the same month in 2019, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
April steel shipments decreased by 27.9pc compared to 7.8mn nt shipped in March 2020. Shipments for the first four months in 2020 decreased by 8.1pc to 29.7mn nt from 32.4mn nt in the same period a year ago.
A comparison of April shipments to the previous month showed cold rolled sheet imports decreased by 29pc, hot rolled sheet declined by 31pc, and hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip fell by 35pc. Lower end user demand and sales pass-thru forecasts by steel service centers because of social distancing policies to contain COVID-19’s spread contracted April shipments, AISI noted.
A comparison of March 2020 shipments to February showed normalized month-on-month variances as hot rolled sheet increased by 4pc, cold rolled sheet declined by 1pc and hot dipped galvanized sheet and strip decreased by 5pc. The first three months’ aggregate shipments only decreased 0.2pc compared to the same period in the previous year.