Great Lakes steel production dipped by 2,000 tons last week, though U.S. steel mills remained at 85% capacity utilization, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Great Lakes steel production dipped by 2,000 tons last week, though U.S. steel mills remained at 85% capacity utilization, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
National steel output is up more than nearly 20% so far this year and more than 27% higher than at the same time last year, when steel mills sunk to just over half-capacity early in the coronavirus pandemic.
Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the South Shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, made 636,000 tons of metal in the week that ended Aug. 21, down from 638,000 tons the previous week.
Overall, domestic steel mills in the United States made 1.877 million tons of steel last week, up 0.4% from 1.869 million tons the previous week, and up 27.2% compared to 1.476 million tons the same time a year prior, when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic shut down auto plants and other factories, greatly depleting the demand for steel.
So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 60.17 million tons of steel, a 19.8% increase compared to the 50.24 million tons made during the same period in 2020.
U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 80.4% through Aug. 21, up from 66.6% at the same point in 2020, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel capacity utilization nationwide was 85% last week, which was up from 65.9% at the same time a year ago and down from 84.7% a week prior.
Steel production in the southern region, a wide geographic swath that encompasses many mini-mills and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, totaled 815,000 tons last week, up from 799,000 tons the week before. Volume in the rest of the Midwest dipped to 201,000 tons, down from 202,000 tons the week prior.
