Weekly domestic raw steel production declined 0.3% to 1.997 million tons (mt) for the week ending April 28, 2012, compared with last week’s post-recession high of 2.003 mt, but was up 11.7% 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 also fell this week, dropping from 81.1% last week to 80.8%, but was higher than the year-ago level of 73.1%.  The lowest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 33.5% for the week of December 27, 2008; the highest was recorded last week at 81.1%.

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