Steel Mills

AISI: Domestic steel production edges down

Written by David Schollaert

August 19, 2025

US raw steel production declined last week, according to the latest data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). It’s just the fifth weekly decline over the past 17 weeks as mills have ramped up output since April.

Domestic steel mills produced an estimated 1,774,000 short tons (st) of raw steel in the week ending Aug. 16 (Figure 1). Output fell by 26,000 st, or 1.4%, from the previous week, but was still one of the highest unadjusted totals since January 2022.

Last week’s production was 3.5% above the year-to-date (YTD) weekly average of 1,715,000 st and 2.8% higher than the same week a year earlier. YTD output now stands at 55,920,000 st, up 1.3% from the same period of 2024. Prior to June, 2025 production had been trailing 2024 levels.

The mill capability utilization rate was 78.3% last week, just 1.3 percentage points below the nine-month high of 79.6% set in late June. This rate decreased from 79.5% the previous week and was 77.7% in the same week of 2024. Across 2025 so far, we have seen an average weekly capability utilization rate of 76.5%.

Raw production decreased week over week (w/w) in four of the five regions defined by AISI:

  • Northeast – 118,000 st (down 10,000 st)
  • Great Lakes – 554,000 st (down 1,000 st)
  • Midwest – 237,000 st (down 9,000 st)
  • South – 795,000 st (down 7,000 st)
  • West – 70,000 st (up 1,000 st)

Editor’s note: The raw steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated and should be used primarily to assess production trends. The graphic included in this report shows unadjusted weekly data. The monthly AISI “AIS 7” report is available by subscription and provides a more detailed summary of domestic steel production.

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief 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. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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