Raw steel production hit a five-year low two weeks ago, but dropped even further last week, falling to 613,000 tons in the Great Lakes region.
Capacity utilization fell below 70 percent, and trails the 2014 rate by double digits.
Local steel output fell by 5,000 tons, or 0.8 percent in the week that ended Saturday, according to an American Iron and Steel Institute estimate. Overall U.S. steel production dipped by 0.7 percent to the lowest it's been in a week since 2010.
Most of the raw steel production in the Great Lakes region takes place in the Chicago area, chiefly Lake and Porter counties in Northwest Indiana.
Production in the Southern District, typically the nation's second-biggest steel-producing region, rose slightly to 536,000 tons last week, up about 1.9 percent from 526,000 tons a week earlier.
Total domestic raw steel production last week was about 1.645 million tons, down from 1.657 million tons a week earlier.
Nationally, domestic steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 69.6 percent last week, down from 70.1 percent a week earlier. The capacity utilization rate had been 77.7 percent at the same time a year earlier.
Year-to-date output was 16.6 million net tons, at a capacity utilization rate of 74.7 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Production so far this year trails the 2014 rate by 3.4 percent, while capacity utilization lags last year by a staggering 11.9 percent.
In January, steel shipments dropped 2.7 percent compared to December, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel mills in the United States shipped 7.7 million net tons of steel, or 1.7 percent less than they shipped in January 2014. U.S. steel makers shipped 2 percent more cold-rolled sheets in January, but hot-dipped galvanized sheets were down 6 percent and hot-rolled sheets were down 10 percent.
Steel production slumps to the worst it's been in years.
Source: NW Times
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