Weekly domestic raw steel production decreased 0.9% from last week’s 1.878 million tons (mt) to 1.861 mt for the week ending August 24, 2013, falling to a two-month low and remaining at some 0.1% above the year-ago level of 1.863 mt.
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.
Capacity utilization dropped from 78.4% last week to 77.7% this week, which is also a two-month low, but is above the year-ago level of 75.4%.
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.
Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence
