Steel Products Prices North America

AISI: Weekly Raw Steel Production Rebounds

Written by David Schollaert

July 25, 2022

Raw steel production by US mills recovered last week after declining for two straight weeks. Despite the increase, mill utilization rates remained below the 80% mark for a third consecutive week. Domestic capacity utilization rose to 79.6% while mill production totaled 1,754,000 net tons in the week ending July 23, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

US output was up 0.9% versus the week prior but down 5.8% versus the same year-ago period when production was 1,862,000 net tons. Mill capacity utilization last week was 0.7 percentage points above the prior week but 4.8 percentage points below the same period one year ago when utilization was 84.4%.

Adjusted year-to-date production through July 23 totaled 51,108,000 net tons, at an average utilization rate of 80.4%. That’s 2.6% below the same period last year when production was 52,485,000 net tons, though the utilization rate was lower at 80.1%, AISI said.

Production rose in three of five regions last week. The South saw the largest increase in tons, a 14,000 net ton boost (+1.9%) week-on-week, followed by the Northeast (+5,000 net tons or +3.0%), and the Midwest (+5,000 net tons or +2.4%).

Production by region for the week ending July 23 was: Northeast, 171,000 tons; Great Lakes, 568,000 tons; Midwest, 210,000 tons; South, 738,000 tons; and West, 67,000 tons – for a total of 1,754,000 net tons, up 16,000 net tons from the prior week.

WeeklyRawSteelProd Wk30

Note: The raw steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage provided by approximately 50% of the domestic production capacity combined with the most recent monthly production data for the remainder. Therefore, this report should be used primarily to assess production trends. The AISI production report “AIS 7”, published monthly and available by subscription, provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing 75% of US production capacity.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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