Steel Products Prices North America
April 13, 2021
Weekly Raw Steel Production Edges Down 0.3%
Written by David Schollaert
Weekly raw steel production by U.S. mills totaled 1,761,000 net tons in the week ending April 10, down 0.3% compared with the week before when production was 1,766,000 net tons. The mill utilization rate last week averaged 77.6%, down from 77.9% the week prior, but up 42.0% from the same period last year when production was 1,240,000 net tons and utilization was 55.4%.
Year-ago output was severely impacted by widespread shutdowns and mitigation efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19. Thus, contrasting production with year-ago levels can be misleading. If compared with the same period in 2019, however, production is down 8.7% from when it totaled 1,915,000 net tons. Mill utilization was 82.3% on April 13, 2019.
