Steel Products Prices North America
August Raw Steel Production Continues Improving Trend
Written by Brett Linton
September 25, 2013
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of August 2013. This estimation is different than the weekly raw steel production as it is based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates.
Total raw steel production for the month of August was reported to be 8,229,388 net tons with 5,044,431 NT being produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 3,184,957 NT produced by blast furnaces. August raw steel production was reported by the AISI to have been 0.4 percent higher than the previous month.
Total raw steel production for 2013 through August is now 63,942,749 NT which is 5.1 percent below that of 2012 through the same time period. Capacity utilization rate for the month of August was reported by the AISI to be 77.6 percent and for the year through August the utilization rate is reported to have been 76.9 percent. (Source: AISI)
Below is a chart showing the monthly production figures in a 3-month moving average (3MMA). When compared against 2012 production numbers August was 5 percent lower than the same month last year. However, production bottomed in November and has been slowly growing ever since based on our SMU 3-month moving average analysis.
Brett Linton
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