Raw Steel Production Up 4% Over Last Month, YTD Down 8%

Compared to the first three months of 2014, 2015 YTD production is down 8.1 percent (February YTD was down 4.8 percent). The table below shows that 9 of the 11 state-groups in the yearly comparison were reported as down.

The capacity utilization rate for the month of March 2015 was reported to be 67.7 percent, down from 72.1 percent in February and down from 77.7 percent in March 2014. However, our readers need to be aware that the AISI had adjusted the available capacity figure last month: February’s production capability was 9.5 million tons, while March capacity went back to the 10.5 million ton level we saw in previous months.

SMU Note: An interactive graphic of our raw steel production history is displayed below, but is only available when you are reading the newsletter on the Steel Market Update website. We also house this graphic in the Analysis section of our website here. If you need help logging into the website or navigating through it, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or 800-432-3475.

{amchart id=”131″ Monthly Raw Steel Production from AISI – AIS 7}