Steel Products Prices North America

Raw Steel Production Declines 2.2 Percent in June

August 2, 2016

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

Total raw steel production for the month of June was reported to be 7,522,167 net tons with 5,013,748 tons being produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,508,419 tons produced by blast furnaces. June raw steel production was reported to be 171,379 tons or 2.2 percent lower than the previous month but 20,794 tons or 0.3 percent higher over the same month last year.

Compared to the first six months of 2015, 2016 YTD production is up 0.2 percent to 44,153,082 tons. The table below shows that 6 of the 11 state-groups reported increased year over year production over the same period last year.

The capacity utilization rate for the month of June 2016 was reported to be 75.1 percent, up from 74.3 percent in May and up from 74.4 percent reported in June 2015. Note that there has been a reduction in available steel capacity from 2015 to 2016, making the capacity utilization rate higher in 2016 for the same amount of steel produced in 2015.

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.