Great Lakes steel production rose by 3,000 tons last week, while U.S. steel mills remained well over 80% capacity utilization, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. National steel output is up 16% so far this year and more than 41% higher than at the same time last year, when steel mills sunk to just over half-capacity early in the coronavirus pandemic.
Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the South Shore of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, made 648,000 tons of metal in the week that ended July 3, up from 645,000 tons the previous week.
Overall, domestic steel mills in the United States made 1.842 million tons of steel last week, up 0.4% from 1.835 million tons the previous week, and up 41% compared to 1.3 million tons the same time a year prior, when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic shut down auto plants and other factories, greatly depleting the demand for steel.
So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 46.89 million tons of steel, a 16% increase compared to the 40.41 million tons made during the same period in 2020.
U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 79% through July 3, up from 67.7% at the same point in 2020, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel capacity utilization nationwide was 83% last week, which was up from 58.3% at the same time a year ago and up from 82.7% a week prior.
Steel production in the southern region, a wide geographic swath that encompasses many mini-mills and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, was 772,000 tons last week, down from 785,000 tons the week before. Volume in the rest of the Midwest increased to 202,000 tons, up from 196,000 tons the week prior.
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