Raw steel production in the Great Lakes region surged to 650,000 tons last week, the second straight week it's gone up after bottoming out to a new low last month.
Capacity utilization ticked up to 72.4 percent last week, but overall U.S. production still lags 2014 by 6.9 percent.
Local steel production shot up by 39,000 tons, or 6.38 percent in the week that ended Saturday, according to an American Iron and Steel Institute estimate. Overall U.S. steel output increased by just under 0.3 percent over the same period.
Most of the raw steel production in the Great Lakes region takes place in the Chicago area, mainly Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana. Indiana has led the nation in steel production for more than 30 years.
Production in the Southern District, typically the country's second-biggest steel-producing region, plummeted to 546,000 tons last week, down from 579,000 tons the week before.
Total domestic raw steel production last week was about 1.712 million tons, up slightly from 1.707 million tons a week earlier.
Nationally, domestic steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 72.4 percent last week, up from 72.2 percent a week earlier. The capacity utilization rate had been 76.6 percent at the same time a year earlier.
Year-to-date output was 29.8 million net tons, at a capacity utilization rate of 72.4 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Output last week was down 7 percent year-over-year.
Source: NW Times
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