Weekly domestic raw steel production decreased 0.6% to 1.930 million tons (mt) for the week ending February 25, 2012, but is up 4.8% from the year-ago level.  The highest production since the recession began was 1.945 mt on December 17, 2011, while the lowest was 0.8 mt on December 27, 2008.

The capacity utilization rate declined from 78.6% last week to 78.1% this week, but is still above the 75.3% rate recorded a year ago. The highest capacity utilization since the recession began was last week’s 78.6%, 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