Weekly domestic raw steel production rose 1.4% to 2.003 million tons (mt) for the week ending April 21, 2012, surpassing last week’s previous post-recession high of 1.975 mt, and is up 7.6% 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 81.1% compared to 79.9% last week and was higher than the year-ago level of 76.1%.  Capacity utilization also set a post-recession high this week.  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