Steel Products Prices North America

U.S. Mill Capacity Utilization Nears 70 Percent

Written by David Schollaert

October 20, 2020

Raw steel production by U.S. mills rose again by 2.2 percent to 1,535,000 net tons in the week ending Oct. 17, continuing an uptrend that began nearly five months ago. The mill operating rate hit 69.4 percent, up from 67.9 percent the week prior. Despite the repeated rise in capacity utilization, production was still down by 15.0 percent compared with the same week last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through Oct. 17 totaled 62,481,00 net tons, at an average utilization rate of 66.3 percent. That is down 19.4 percent from the same period last year, when the utilization rate was 80.1 percent, AISA said.

Following is production by district for the Oct. 17 week: North East: 143,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 557,000 net tons; Midwest, 164,000 net tons; South, 601,000 net tons; and West, 70,000 net tons, for a total of 1,525,000 tons and a net increase of 23,000 tons. Despite nominal decreases in the North East and West regions, production was up across the other regions.

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 fourth-quarter 2020 is approximately 29.1 million tons, compared to 30.4 million tons for the same period last year and 29.4 million tons for the second quarter of 2020.

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is a senior analyst for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. Based in CRU’s Pittsburgh office, David can be reached at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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