Great Lakes Steel Production Jumps by 20,000 tons

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  Steel production jumped last week by 20,000 tons in the Great Lakes region, according to Washington, D.C.-based American Iron and Steel Institute, the steel industry's trade association.

That's an increase of 3.5%.

So far this year steel production nationally is trailing last year's pace by 3.3%.

Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the south shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, made 586,000 tons of metal in the week that ended March 9, up from 566,000 tons the previous week.

Nationally, steel mills remained below 80% capacity last week, but have been moving back toward that key threshold for financial success.

Overall, domestic steel mills made 1.734 million tons of steel last week, up 1% from 1.716 million tons the previous week, according to the AISI.

 So far this year, domestic steel mills have made 16.59 million tons of steel, down 3.3% from 17.16 million tons of steel at the same point last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. 

U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 75.8% through Saturday, down from 77.7% at the same point in 2022, according to the AISI.

Steel capacity utilization was 78.1% last week, up from 76.9% a year earlier and up from 77.3% a week earlier.

Steel production in the southern region, which encompasses many mini-mills across a wide geographic area and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, totaled 762,000 tons last week, up from 755,000 tons the week before, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Steel production in the rest of the Midwest fell by 8,000 tons to 185,000 tons.

 Courtesy: www.nwitimes.com