Raw steel production in the Great Lakes region — normally about 100,000 tons higher in better times — ticked up to 591,000 tons in the Great Lakes region last week.
Capacity utilization was 67.7 percent last week, and overall U.S. production trails 2014 by 6.3 percent.
Local steel production rose by 12,000 tons, or 2 percent in the week that ended Saturday, according to an American Iron and Steel Institute estimate. Overall U.S. steel output declined by 1.7 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 decades.
Production in the Southern District, typically the country's second-biggest steel-producing region, fell to 511,000 tons last week, a decline of 8 percent from the 556,000 tons produced the week before.
Total domestic raw steel production last week was about 1.6 million tons, down from 1.628 million tons a week earlier.
Nationally, domestic steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 67.7 percent last week, down from 68.9 percent a week earlier. The capacity utilization rate had been 77.1 percent at the same time a year earlier.
Year-to-date output was 23.1 million net tons, at a capacity utilization rate of 72.9 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Production so far this year trails the 2014 rate by 6.3 percent, while capacity utilization lags last year by a steep 13.7 percent.
Source: NW Times
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