Steel Products Prices North America

February Raw Steel Production Steady at 7.1 Million Tons

March 31, 2016

The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of February 2016. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the weekly estimates.

Total raw steel production for the month of February was reported to be 7,081,275 net tons with 4,592,622 tons being produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,488,653 tons produced by blast furnaces. February raw steel production was reported to be 35,502 tons or 0.5 percent lower than the previous month but 262,757 tons or 3.9 percent higher over the same month last year.

Compared to the first two months of 2015, 2016 YTD production is down 4.2 percent to 14,198,052 tons. The table below shows that all 11 state-groups in the yearly comparison were reported as down.

The capacity utilization rate for the month of February 2016 was reported to be 73.1 percent, up from 68.7 percent in January and better than the 72.1 percent reported in February 2015 (note: there has been a reduction in available capacity between 2015 and 2016. This pushes the capacity utilization rate higher in 2016 for the same amount of steel produced).

SMU Note: An interactive graphic of our raw steel production history can be seen in the Analysis section of our website here. If you need help logging into the website or navigating through it, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or 800-432-3475.