Steel Products Prices North America

Raw Steel Production & Capacity Utilization Down in December

Written by Brett Linton

January 1, 2014

For the week ending December 28, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,773,000 net tons of raw steel. This is a decrease in production in comparison to the first week of December when raw steel production was 1,829,000 NT (the highest production rate for the month). During the month of December, raw steel production bottomed out at 1,733,000 NT in the week ending December 21.

The estimated capacity utilization rate was 76.3 percent in the first week of December, decreasing to 75.9 percent the following and decreasing to 72.3 percent the next week. In the last week of the month, the capacity utilization rate rose to 74.0 percent.

Year-to-date (YTD) raw steel production for the first week of December was at 90,534,000 NT, down 1.5 percent from production through the same period in 2012. As of the week ending December 31, YTD production was at 95,858,000 NT, down 1.4 percent from production through the same period in 2012

Average capacity utilization for the year so far is estimated at 76.9 percent, up from 75.2 percent YTD 2012.

Below is our interactive graph which can only be seen when reading the newsletter online (on our website).

{amchart id=”84″ Weekly Raw Steel Production from AISI}

Brett Linton

Brett Linton is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update, where he began his career. Linton has been in the steel industry since 2010. He has held roles as a category manager and strategic insights director at Reibus before returning to SMU in 2024. He is a graduate of The University of North Georgia with a degree in Finance and Accounting. Brett can be reached at brett@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-314-0179.

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