Steel Products Prices North America

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

Written by Brett Linton

April 29, 2015

The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of March 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the weekly estimates.

Total raw steel production for the month of March was reported to be 7,092,129 net tons with 4,462,219 tons being produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,629,910 tons produced by blast furnaces. March raw steel production was reported by the AISI to have been 4.0 percent higher than the previous month.

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}

Brett Linton

Brett Linton is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update, where he began his career. Linton has been in the steel industry since 2010. He has held roles as a category manager and strategic insights director at Reibus before returning to SMU in 2024. He is a graduate of The University of North Georgia with a degree in Finance and Accounting. Brett can be reached at brett@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-314-0179.

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