Steel Products Prices North America

Mill Utilization Rate Dipped Last Week

September 22, 2020

Domestic steel production dipped a bit last week for only the second time in the last 15 weeks. Production by U.S. mills totaled 1,446,000 net tons in the week ending Sept. 19, with the mills operating at an average utilization rate of 64.5 percent. Production in the Sept. 19 week was down 0.9 percent from the prior week when the utilization rate was 65.1 percent.

Production for the week was down 19.7 percent compared with the same week last year when the utilization rate was 77.4 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through Sept. 19 totaled 56,174,000 net tons at an average utilization rate of 65.8 percent. That’s down 20.1 percent from the same period last year when the utilization rate was 80.3 percent, AISI said.

Following is production by district for the Sept. 19 week: North East: 135,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 527,000 net tons; Midwest, 169,000 net tons; South, 553,000 net tons; and West, 62,000 net tons, for a total of 1,446,000 tons and a net decrease of 13,000 tons. Production was down in all regions except the Northeast.

Note: 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. Capability for third-quarter 2020 is approximately 29.4 million tons, compared to 30.6 million tons for the same period last year and 29.1 million tons for the second quarter of 2020.