Steel Products Prices North America

Weekly Steel Production Tops 82 Percent for January

February 4, 2020

With January in the record books, domestic steelmakers have managed to keep their raw steel production at a healthy 82 percent of capacity or better for the entire first month of the year, outpacing the rate in the beginning of 2019. Production in the week ending Feb. 1 totaled 1,914,000 net tons for a utilization rate of 82.1 percent, down a slight 0.3 percent from the previous week but up 1.9 percent compared with the same week last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through Feb. 1 totaled 8,769,000 net tons at a utilization rate of 82.3 percent. That’s up 2.4 percent from the same period last year when the rate was 80.4 percent.

Following is production by district for the Feb. 1 week: North East: 230,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 680,000 net tons; Midwest, 204,000 net tons; South, 714,000 net tons; and West, 86,000 net tons, for a total of 1,914,000 tons. Production for the week was up in the Northeast, South and West, but down in the Great Lakes and Midwest.

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 2020 is approximately 30.3 million tons compare with 29.9 million tons for the same period last year and 30.4 million tons for fourth-quarter 2019.