Weekly domestic raw steel production rose 0.9% to 1.975 million tons (mt) for the week ending April 14, 2012, a post-recession high and up some 8.6% compared to the year-ago level.  The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 for the week of December 27, 2008.

The capacity utilization rate climbed to 79.9% compared to 79.2% last week and was higher than the year-ago level of 74.3%.  Like weekly production, capacity utilization came in at the highest level since the recession began.  The lowest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 33.5% for the week of December 27, 2008.

Note: AISI weekly production data only includes real-time input from 50% of producing members; the remainder of the data is a guesstimate based on each company’s prior-month production and therefore the weekly AISI data lags when there are production cuts or increases going on.

Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence