The US produced 1.878mn nt (1.704mn mt) of crude steel in the week ending March 14, 2020, down by 1.3pc from the previous week and 1.8pc from the same week a year ago, according to data provided by the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI).
The capability utilization rate of 80.5pc was also below the prior week’s 81.6pc rate and 82.2pc in the same week a year ago. According to the AISI data, last week’s capacity utilization and total production per week were so far the lowest in 2020.
Production from January 2020 to last week stood at 20.131mn nt, at a capability utilization rate of 81.7pc, up 0.4pc from the 20.055mn nt during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was close at 81.6pc.
The Northeast, Midwest, and South are trending at almost identical production levels of 225,000nt, 202,000nt, and 707,000nt, respectively, compared to the same week a year ago. Production in the Great Lakes region decreased by 5pc to 689,000nt from 729,000nt last year.
The production share of the Great Lakes region has declined to 36.7pc of total US production from 37.8pc last year while the share of the Southern region has risen to 37.7pc from 36.8pc last year. Crude steel production in the West has steadily declined since the beginning of the year to 55,000nt this past week which is also down 7pc compared to 59,000nt in the same week a year ago.
The estimated figures provided by AISI are compiled from weekly production tonnage provided from 50pc of the domestic producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder.