Beam licenses year to date (YTD), through July 7^th totaled 292,467 tons, down 19.5% from last year’s YTD 363,416 tons. July to date license requests were for 17,535 tons, down substantially from the April, May, June average of 56,641 tons.

US steel production averaged 1.733 million (M), tons per week at an average capacity utilization rate of 73.7% year to date (YTD), in 2017. The most recent four week capacity utilization rate was 74.0% at an average production rate of 1.726M tons per week.

China Metals Weekly (CMW), July 5^th newsletter reported that prices were up across all product lines on a week on week (w/w), basis. Angles advanced 2.8% to $504 per ton, channels and beams each increased by 2.0% to $492 and $494 respectively.

The total number of operating rigs in the US the week ending July 5^th was 956, 733 oil and 184 gas. Month on month (m/m), oil rigs were up 3.1% and gas rigs were up 1.1%, for an overall increase of 2.6%.

According to the June 29^th China Metals Weekly (CMW) newsletter, prices were up across all product lines on a week on week (w/w), basis. Angles edged up 2.4% to $491 per ton, channels and beams each increased by 0.7% to $484 and $483 respectively.

The national ABI score for May was 53.0, up 2.1 points above April’s score, (> 50 indicates an increase in billings). The ABI has been greater than 50 for four of months in a row and for seven of the last eight months. The new projects inquiry index was 62.4, up 2.2 points month on month.