AISC approves structural steel shipping standard

The American Institute of Steel Construction Inc. (AISC) has approved a new standard for shipping rolled structural steel shapes.

Officially known as the "Standard Specification for Bar Coded Shipment Label and Electronic Advance Shipment Notice Including Test Report Information for Rolled Structural Steel Shapes," the standard has three parts:

• Information to be included on a bar-coded shipping label that is placed on an individual piece or bundle of structural steel.
• An "Advance Shipment Notice," which is an electronic file sent to the customer by the supplier in advance of the material shipment.
• Mill test report data, supplied by the structural shape producer, which may be included in the electronic file.

The standard's objective is to create a more efficient, integrated supply chain in which each shipment lift will have a bar-coded license plate that carries detailed shipment and material information with the option of including traceability to its origin via the mill test report.