US raw steel production edges down week on week: AISI
Pittsburgh (Platts)--10Dec2012/550 pm EST/2250 GMT
US raw steel production edged down in the week that ended Saturday, after
steel output picked up by 3.1% in the prior week. Weekly production data
provided by the American Iron and Steel Institute found that US steel mills
produced 1.802 million st of steel last week.
Last week's steel production total represents a 0.9% decrease from the
prior week's output of 1.818 million st. Capacity utilization dropped to
72.9% from 73.6% week on week.
In the comparable week of 2011 -- the 49th week -- US mills produced
1.863 million st of steel and operated at an average 75.2% of capacity.
Article continues below...
|
|
Request a free trial of: Platts SBB Steel Markets Daily
|
|
|
Platts SBB Steel Markets Daily provides transparent daily and weekly assessments of iron ore, coking coal, coke, ferrous scrap and ferroalloys prices, plus insightful analysis and commentary on the day's market activities.
|
|
Year-to-date production is up 2.9% from the same period in 2011, as
mills produced 91.73 million st of steel in the first 49 weeks of 2012 and
89.12 million st in the same period last year. Average capability utilization
this year has been 75.8%, up from 74.4% last year.
Steel volumes held relatively stable week on week, except in the North
East, where production fell to 195,000 st, a 4.4% decrease from 204,000 st of
steel produced in the prior week.
Steel production from the Great Lakes region dropped to 654,000 st, a
1.1% decrease from 661,000 st. Midwest production edged down to 259,000 st, a
1.1% decrease from 262,000 st in the week before.
Southern district production edged up by 0.3%, or 2,000 st, to 619,000
st from the prior week's 617,000 st. Western district production increased by
1.4%, or 1,000 st, to 75,000 st last week.
AISI determines its weekly raw steel production data based on weekly
data from 50% of the domestic industry and estimates the rest using monthly
production data.
--Estelle Tran, estelle_tran@platts.com
--Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com