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For the week ending February 2, 2013, weekly domestic raw steel production fell 0.3% to 1.801 million tons (mt) – but is up 5.8% from the recent low of 1.679 mt for the week of October 27, 2012.
We would caution readers that only half of the AISI reporting companies release their weekly production in “real time” so the other half of this data is estimated using the last month’s reported production & operating rate. What this means is that when production is changing, the weekly data is actually understating the change.
Capacity utilization came in at 75.2%, down from 75.4% last week and from the year-ago level of 78.5%.
The lowest production since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest was 2.005 mt for the week of May 12, 2012. The lowest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 33.5% for the week of December 27, 2008; the highest was 81.1% on May 12, 2012.
Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence
The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States rose for the second straight week – climbing by 11 to 1,764 for the week ending February 1, 2013 – up 0.6% from last week and 0.9% from the nearly 2-year low 3 weeks ago, but down 11.7% from last year.
The highest weekly rig count in the United States since 1940 was recorded on December 28, 1981, at 4,530; the lowest was recorded on April 23, 1999, at 488.
The number of rigs in Canada showed a rise of 0.6% to 625 from 621 last week but was still down 12.0% from last year.
The highest rig count for Canada was 727 on February 3, 2006; the lowest was 29, recorded on April 24, 1992.
Source: Baker Hughes Inc.
