Great Lakes steel production rises by 21,000 tons last week

Overall, domestic steel mills made 1.907 million tons of steel last week, up from 1.886 million tons the previous week.

U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 80.9 percent through Feb. 23, up from 75.7 percent at the same point in 2018, according to the AISI.

Domestic steelmakers used about 81.9 percent of their steelmaking capacity in the week that ended Feb. 23, up from 81 percent the previous week and up from 77.9 percent at the same time last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Some analysts say steel-making capacity utilization of about 90 percent is considered financially healthy for the industry, at least for the larger integrated mills like those around Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, because of their high fixed operating costs. But the capacity utilization rate has been significantly higher this year than during the most recent downturn, when blast furnaces were taken offline at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor in East Chicago and elsewhere.

So far this year, domestic steel mills have made 14.6 million tons of steel, an 8 percent increase over the same period in 2018.

Production in the Southern district, a wide geographic swath that includes many mini mills, rose to 736,000 tons last week, up from 726,000 tons the previous week.

Steel output in the greater Midwest dipped to 205,000 tons last week, down from 206,000 tons the previous week.

Courtesy : www.nwitimes.com