Steel Products Prices North America

Steel Production Starts the Year Strong

January 8, 2019

U.S. mills began the new year with little sign of a slowdown. Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Jan. 5 totaled 1,876,000 net tons for a capability utilization of 80.0 percent. Steel production was down a slight 1.2 percent from the prior week, but up 10.1 percent from the same week last year when the utilization rate was 73.1 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Following is production by district for the Jan. 5 week: North East: 219,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 719,000 net tons; Midwest, 203,000 net tons; South, 661,000 net tons; and West, 74,000 net tons, for a total of 1,876,000 tons.

The raw steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage from 50 percent 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 monthly production report provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing 75 percent of U.S. production capacity.