May shipments of steel in the United States fell 14.6 percent

Experts from the American Iron and Steel Institute have summed up the results of shipments of American steel - a decline, according to statistics, is close to 15%.

Steel shipments in the US segment of production fell by 14.6% in May versus the last year's reporting month. The total volume of the indicator exceeded 7.1 million tons. April of this year was surpassed by 1.2%.

Experts point out the period "June 28 - July 4" as a separate block. For the current year, this period corresponds to steel production exceeding 1.68 million tons. The corresponding period of the last year turns out to be 11.4% higher in volumes. The most important production indicator, capacity utilization, fell to 71.2%, experts say. Weekly statistics are not comforting either. Thus, as compared to the previous week, the figures show that the output volumes decreased by 2.8%.

May net sales of steel products fell 16% compared to May 2014. However, some consolation is caused by a 1.2% growth versus last April. The drop in sales covered all types of rolled steel, experts say, hot-rolled steel and galvanized steel producers also suffered.

In five months, US steelmakers sold 36.2 million tonnes on the market, falling more than 10 percent. Exported in May, experts say, slightly more than 870 thousand tons. Half of the volume was acquired by Canadian companies. The overall decline in exported volumes for five months was 12.1%.

Canadian companies bought 2.1 million tons of American steel products in five months. Purchase volumes decreased by 21%. The Mexican export segment is characterized by a much smaller dip, only 1%. 1.7 million tons were sold here. The American metallurgists are rescued by the companies of the European Union, which have purchased over 168 million tons. The supply volumes of this part of the European market increased by 16.9%. The Dominican Republic also distinguished itself by an 11% increase in purchases, which purchased almost 49 million tons.