Steel Products Prices North America

Weekly Steel Production's Up, But Still Lags Last Year

Written by David Schollaert

November 16, 2020

Raw steel production by U.S. mills increased by 7,000 net tons last week. In the week ending Nov. 14, domestic steel production totaled 1,580,000 net tons, pushing the average industry capacity utilization rate up slightly to 71.4 percent. Although production continues on a slow upward trajectory, it remains 13.3 percent below the same week last year when the operating rate was 78.8 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Adjusted year-to-date production through Nov. 14 totaled 68,959,000 net tons, at an average utilization rate of 66.9 percent. That’s down 18.7 percent from the same period last year, when the utilization rate was 80.0 percent, AISI said.

Following is production by district for the Nov. 14 week: North East: 147,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 556,000 net tons; Midwest, 177,000 net tons; South, 627,000 net tons; and West, 73,000 net tons for a total of 1,580,000 and a net increase of 7,000 tons week on week. The North East and South regions experienced decreases, while the West was unchanged. The reported increases in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions pushed the week/week growth.

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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