Steel Products Prices North America

Weekly Raw Steel Production Rates Slipping Below 1.7 Million Tons

September 7, 2016

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) released their weekly assessment of the domestic steel mills raw steel production for the week ending September 3, 2016. The AISI reported production as being 1,656,000 net tons with a capacity utilization rate of 70.8 percent. The production rate (based on approximately 50 percent of the industry providing production data) was higher than the previous week by 14,000 tons but was down 3.1 percent compared to the same week one year ago.

The AISI press release reported: “Adjusted year-to-date production through September 3, 2016 was 60,919,000 net tons, at a capability utilization rate of 72.4 percent. That is down 1.2 percent from the 61,688,000 net tons during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 72.3 percent.

“Broken down by districts, here’s production for the week ending September 3, 2016 in thousands of net tons: North East: 205; Great Lakes: 648; Midwest: 161; Southern: 570 and Western: 72 for a total of 1656.”

The total capacity for the 3rd Quarter 2016 is approximately 30.7 million tons according to the AISI. During the 3rd Quarter 2015 raw steel production capacity was 31.4 million tons. During the 2nd Quarter 2016 the number was 30.4 million tons.

The weekly raw steel production numbers are based on tonnage reported by approximately 50 percent of the domestic steel mills. According to AISI their weekly report should only be used to “assess production trends” and readers should not take the numbers as gospel truth. The monthly raw steel production numbers are based on tonnages being reported by approximately 75 percent of the steel mills and is a little more reliable for that reason.

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