Steel Products Prices North America

Mill Capacity Utilization Inches Downward

June 11, 2019

The U.S. mill capability utilization rate declined slightly for the fourth week in a row to 80.6 percent in the week ending June 8. Raw steel production dipped by another 0.8 percent from the previous week to 1,875,000 net tons. Current mill utilization is down about 2.8 percentage points from its peak earlier this year. The week’s production still represented a 3.3 percent increase from the same period last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through June 8 totaled 43,110,000 net tons at an average capability utilization rate of 81.5 percent, a tonnage increase of 6.0 percent from the same period last year when the utilization rate was 76.7 percent

Following is production by district for the June 8 week: North East: 214,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 720,000 net tons; Midwest, 186,000 net tons; South, 684,000 net tons; and West, 71,000 net tons, for a total of 1,875,000 tons. Production was flat to down slightly in every region but the Northeast, which saw a small increase.

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 second-quarter 2019 is approximately 30.3 million tons compared to 30.5 million tons for the same period last year and 29.9 million tons for first-quarter 2019.