Steel output stalls in third week of March

The Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) says raw steel output in the United States during the week ending March 20 fell by 0.5 percent compared with the week before.

According to AISI, the 1.753 million tons of steel made in U.S. mills the week ending March 20 also represented a 0.7 percent increase from the same period in the previous year. The mill capability utilization (capacity) rate was 77.3 percent in the third week of March 2021compared with a 75.3 percent rate in the comparable week in 2020.

Year-to-date output through March 20 stands at 19.626 million tons, at a capacity rate of 76.8 percent. That is down 6.2 percent from the more than 20.9 million tons of steel made during the same period in 2020, when the mill capacity rate was 79.6 percent.

Two of the largest steel-consuming industries in the U.S. are running into difficulties in March. In the automotive sector, a shortage of semiconductor chips has idled some automotive assembly lines. That global supply chain woe has grown worse in late March, after an automotive chip plant in Japan operated by Renesas Electronics was damaged by a fire. According to Reuters, the plant will be out of commission for at least one month.

In a summary of employment data in the construction sector, the Arlington, Virginia-based Association of General Contractors (AGC) says when comparing January 2021 with January 2020, construction sector employment was lower in 225 out of 358 metropolitan areas tracked.

The AGC does not cite the pre-COVID-19 versus the post-COVID-19 economy as a factor. Rather, the association writes, “Project cancellations and a lack of new orders have forced firms to reduce their headcount.”

Rising building materials prices also are being cited by the AGC, with the group saying it is “asking the [Biden] administration to end tariffs on key construction materials, including steel and lumber.” Also on the AGC’s agenda for the federal government is it to “work with shippers to get deliveries back on track and pass the significant new infrastructure investments the president has promised.”

“The construction industry won’t be able to fully recover and start adding jobs in significant numbers as long as materials prices continue to spike, deliveries remain unreliable and demand remains uncertain,” says Stephen E. Sandherr, AGC CEO. “Federal officials can’t fix every problem, but they can help by removing tariffs, helping hard-hit shippers and boosting investments in the nation’s infrastructure.”