Weekly domestic raw steel production dropped some 1.5% to 1.854 million tons (mt) for the week ending June 23, 2012, falling for the sixth consecutive week from the post-recession high of 2.005 (mt) reached on May 12, 2012, to the lowest level since December 10, 2011.  Production is also down some 0.9% compared to the year-ago level.  The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 for the week of December 27, 2008.

Capacity utilization also declined from 76.2% last week to 75.0% this week, the lowest rate since December 10, 2011, and lower than the year-ago level of 76.5%.  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.

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