Steel Production Up 1.2% over Previous Week

The American Iron and Steel Institute (steel.org) reports that in the week ending on December 5, 2020, domestic raw steel production was 1,579,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 71.4 percent. Production was 1,818,000 net tons in the week ending December 5, 2019 while the capability utilization then was 78.6 percent. The current week production represents a 13.1 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending December 5, 2020 is up 1.2 percent from the previous week ending November 28, 2020 when production was 1,561,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 70.6 percent.

Adjusted year-to-date production through December 5, 2020 was 73,765,000 net tons, at a capability utilization rate of 67.2 percent. That is down 18.3 percent from the 90,264,000 net tons during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 80.0 percent.

Broken down by districts, here's production for the week ending December 5, 2020 in thousands of net tons: North East: 144; Great Lakes: 555 (35.1%); Midwest: 169; Southern: 641 and Western: 70 for a total of 1579.