Steel Products Prices North America

Steel Production Up 13 Percent from May's Low

July 14, 2020

Steel production moved up for the fifth week in a row, and the seventh out of the last eight weeks, to a total of 1,289,000 net tons in the period ending July 11 with the mills operating at an average utilization rate of 57.5 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute. Production has increased 12.7 percent since the May 2, 2020, low of 1,144,000 tons.

Production was up 1.7 percent from the prior week when the utilization rate was 56.6 percent. The current week’s production still represents a 30.2 percent decrease from the same week last year.

Adjusted year-to-date production through July 11 totaled 41,927,000 net tons at an average utilization rate of 66.6 percent. That’s down 19.4 percent from the same period last year when the utilization rate was 80.9 percent.

Following is production by district for the July 11 week: North East: 141,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 439,000 net tons; Midwest, 125,000 net tons; South, 523,000 net tons; and West, 61,000 net tons, for a total of 1,289,000 tons and a net increase of 21,000 tons. Production increased in four of the five regions, with a small decline in the South.

Note: The raw steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage from 50 percent of the domestic producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder. Therefore, this report should be used primarily to assess production trends. The AISI monthly production report provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing 75 percent of U.S. production capacity. Capability for third-quarter 2020 is approximately 29.4 million tons, compared to 30.6 million tons for the same period last year and 29.1 million tons for the second quarter of 2020.