Steel Products Prices North America

Weekly Steel Production Stays Above 1.9 Million Tons

January 29, 2019

U.S. steelmakers operated at 81.1 percent of their capability in the week ending Jan. 26, producing 1,922,000 net tons of raw steel. It has been a year since the mills produced that much in a single week. It was also the second week this month that steel production was above 1.9 million tons. Steel production last week was up 0.5 percent from the prior week and up 12.1 percent from the same week last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through Jan. 26 totaled 7,065,000 net tons, at an average capability utilization rate of 80.3 percent. That is up 10.9 percent from the 6,371,000 net tons during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 73.6 percent.

Following is production by district for the Jan. 26 week: North East: 224,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 724,000 net tons; Midwest, 205,000 net tons; South, 691,000 net tons; and West, 78,000 net tons, for a total of 1,922,000 tons. Production for the week was up in the North East, Midwest and South, but down in the Great Lakes and West.

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.

Note: Capability for first-quarter 2019 is approximately 30.5 million tons compared to 30.0 million tons for the same period last year and 30.8 million tons for fourth-quarter 2018.