Steel Mills

Steel Mill Weekly Production Continues Below 1.7 Million Tons

September 20, 2016

The week ending September 17, 2016 domestic raw steel production was 1,632,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 69.8 percent. Production was 1,687,000 net tons in the week ending September 17, 2015 while the capability utilization then was 70.5 percent. The current week production represents a 3.3 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending September 17, 2016 is up 0.4 percent from the previous week ending September 10, 2016 when production was 1,626,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 69.5 percent.

Adjusted year-to-date production through September 17, 2016 was 64,177,000 net tons, at a capability utilization rate of 72.2 percent. That is down 1.4 percent from the 65,061,000 net tons during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 72.1 percent.

Broken down by districts, here’s production for the week ending September 17, 2016 in thousands of net tons: North East: 210; Great Lakes: 639; Midwest: 157; Southern: 556 and Western: 70 for a total of 1632.

The Raw Steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage provided from 50% of the domestic producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder. Therefore, this report should be used primarily to assess production trends. The AISI production report “AIS 7”, published monthly and available by subscription, provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing 75% of U.S. production capacity.

Note: Capability for the Third Quarter 2016 is approximately 30.7 million tons versus 31.4 million tons for the same period last year and 30.4 million tons for the Second Quarter of 2016.

SMU Note: Above is the press release from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).