Weekly domestic raw steel production fell 4.7% from 1.818 million tons (mt) last week to 1.733 mt for the week ending December 21, 2013, dropping to the lowest production rate since November 3, 2012.  Production is some 5.8% below the year-ago level of 1.840 mt.

Capacity utilization also fell from 75.9% last week to 72.3% this week, the lowest since November 24, 2012, and is below the year-ago level of 74.5%.

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.

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.

Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence