Weekly steel output rebounds in the US

After declining the week of Thanksgiving, steel output in the United States rebounded the week ending Dec. 5, regaining most of the 20,000 tons of production it lost the prior week.

According to figures released by the Washington-based American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI), domestic raw steel production was just shy of 1.58 million tons, up 1.2 percent from the previous week ending Nov. 28, when output was 1.56 million tons. The week ending Nov. 21, American mills produced 1.58 million tons of steel.

Year-to-date steel output through Dec. 5 stands at 73.77 million tons, at a mill capability utilization (capacity) rate of 67.2 percent. That is down 18.3 percent from the 90.26 million tons made during the same period in 2019, when the capacity rate was 80 percent.

America’s steel output has been on a rising trend since a week that spanned the end of April and the first two days of May of this year, when production hit a trough of 1.14 million tons. Mills operated at a 51.1 percent capacity rate that week.

Week of Dec. 5 output figures from AISI show that association’s Southern region being America’s steel production leader, at 641,000 tons, followed by the Great Lakes region at 555,000 tons.