Steel Production in Great Lakes sinks by 7,000 Tons

WASHINGTON (Scrap Monster): Great Lakes' raw steel production dropped down to 627,000 tonnes and net U.S output decreased by 0.27 percent in the last week, based on the estimates of American Iron and Steel.

Production of Great Lakes has dropped down by 7,000 tons or 1.1 percent. It remained lower than normal. After U.S Steel shutdown the Gary Works blast furnaces due to the difficulty in bringing raw materials on the icy Great Lakes, steel production has declined by more than 100,000 tons in early April.

Steel production from Great Lakes in last year ranged between 650,000 and 700,000 tons a week. Most of the Great Lake raw steel production is from the regions of Indiana and some areas of Chicago. The production in the Southern District, the country’s second largest steel producing region, surged to 670,000 tons from 653,000 tons of the previous week.

Last week net domestic raw steel production was around 1.838 million tons, when compared to 1.843 million tons in the previous week. The capacity utilization rate of US steel last week was 76.4 percent, which was 76.6 percent in the week earlier. Last year, this rate was about 76.5% at the same time. The production rate of domestic mills has been decreased by 0.7 percent to 35.7 million tons this year, while comparing 36 million tons last year.