Steel Shipments & Steel Supply Analysis

In previous months we have reported on steel mill shipments and total supply to the market separately in alternate months with reference to imports which account for most of the difference. In future we will report on shipments and supply in one single report to measure the degree to which imports have absorbed the increased market demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU.

Table 1 shows both supply and shipments as a three month average for the periods June through August and September through November 2014. Comparing these two periods total supply to the market was up by 2.2 percent as mill shipments were down by 0.5 percent. In other words, imports took all the market growth and then some! This situation was particularly acute for cold rolled where supply was down by 0.3 percent but mill shipments were down by 5.9 percent. Hot rolled eked out a small, 0.3 percent growth in shipments as supply was up by 3.4 percent. The only products to buck the trend of imports taking a disproportionate market share were electro-galvanized and other metallic coated, (mainly Galvalume) where both supply and shipments were down and shipments were down by less than supply. Now let’s review supply and shipments separately for individual sheet products.