Weekly domestic raw steel production declined 2.4% to 1.913 million tons (mt) for the week ending March 17, 2012, marking the largest decline since the year began, though still 5.9% above the year ago level. The highest production since the recession began was 1.959 mt on March 10, 2012, while the lowest was 0.8 mt on December 27, 2008.

The capacity utilization rate also posted the largest decline of the year, coming in at 77.4% compared to 79.3% last week, although this was still higher than the year ago level of 73.9%. The highest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 79.3% on March 10, 2012, while the lowest was 33.5% on 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

Steel Market Production Cuts – Nippon Steel will halt H-beam production at its Kimitsu works near Tokyo for about ten days in early April to reduce beam inventories.

Steel Market Production Cuts – A shortage of orders has prompted ArcelorMittal’s flat products re-rolling plant in Skopje, Macedonia, to plan a week-long production outage to start within the next five days.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Rail production at Voestalpine’s German rolling mill, TSTG Schienentechnik in Duisburg, will be closed towards the end of 2012 due to the site’s inability to operate cost-effectively.

Steel Market Production Cuts – JMC Steel Group plans to acquire Atkore International Holdings’ Morrisville, Pa., hollow structural sections (HSS) and standard pipe mill then cease production at the facility.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Workers at the Alfonso Gallardo’s rebar plant, Corrugados Getafe, near Madrid, are to strike in response to the company’s plans to reduce the plant’s workforce by almost 50%, and the strike is set to impact production for four hours each shift during the four days (March 15th, 19th, 22nd and 23rd).

Steel Market Production Increases – According to China Iron and Steel Association’s latest report, its member steelmakers’ daily output reached 1.57 mt in the first ten days of March, up 0.7% from the previous ten days.

Steel Market Production Increases – Turkish longs producer Icdas will increase crude steel capacity by 1 mtpy to 5 mtpy in the coming months, when the company re-commissions the electric arc furnace that was transferred from Istanbul to its main production site.

Steel Market Production Increases – Kazakhstan’s ArcelorMittal Temirtau began production at its newly-installed 1.2 mtpy billet caster earlier this month, but the company has not set any production targets yet.

Steel Market Production Increases – Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has ordered a second converter for the meltshop at its Gijon, Spain, works, which will boost volume by around 25%.

Steel Market Production Increases – Casting Ltd in Kazakhstan’s northeastern Pavlodar region, is to double its rebar production capacity to 480,000 tpy, when it commissions a second 240,000 tpy rolling mill in the second quarter of 2012, increasing its finished product capacity to almost half of its 1 mtpy crude steel capacity.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market

The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China rose to $144.70 on Friday, March 16, 2012, up 1.5% from last Friday’s price of $142.60.  The price increased to $145.00 on Thursday of this week, which is the highest price recorded since November 22, 2011, when the price was at $146.60.

The post-recession low was $59.10 on March 27, 2009, while the high was $190.19 on February 17, 2011.

Source: The Steel Index

The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States rose 0.6% to 1,984 for the week ending March 16, 2012. The rig count is up 15.3% from the year-ago level and is just 2.1% off the 2011 high of 2,026 for the week ending November 4, 2011.

The highest weekly rig count in the United States since 1940 was recorded on December 28, 1981, at 4,530; the lowest was recorded on April 23, 1999, at 488.

The number of rigs in Canada this week fell 21.1% to 517 from 655 last week, marking the sixth straight decline and ending down 11.7% from the same week last year.

The highest rig count for Canada was 727 on February 3, 2006; the lowest was 29, recorded on April 24, 1992.

Source: Baker Hughes Inc.

While newsletters and press were carrying stories reporting pricing deterioration, only Steel Market Intelligence was ahead of the curve, saying before-the-fact that we expected to see AK Steel raise sheet prices soon earlier this week.

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Contact Brooke at assistant@michelleapplebaum.com.

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According to American Metal Market, Nucor (NUE) is keeping April prices of rebar, merchant bars and beams unchanged following the sideways move in shredded scrap prices.

The move is in line with our expectations as the company has been particularly competitive with pricing in order to ensure domestic market share recently.

Our full report provides further thoughts about domestic and global steel prices as well as the implication for steel equities.

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