Steel Products Prices North America

Weekly Raw Steel Production Dips by 1 Percent

March 10, 2020

Raw steel production in the week ending March 7 totaled 1,903,000 net tons with the mills operating at 81.6 percent of their capability. That’s down 20,000 tons or 1.0 percent from the previous week when capacity utilization was at 82.5 percent. The current week’s production is a 0.5 percent decrease from the same period last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through March 7 totaled 18,253,000 net tons at a utilization rate of 81.8 percent. That’s up 0.6 percent from production in the same period last year when the average utilization rate was 81.6 percent.

Following is production by district for the March 7 week: North East: 237,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 687,000 net tons; Midwest, 202,000 net tons; South, 704,000 net tons; and West, 73,000 net tons, for a total of 1,903,000 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.

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.