U.S. steel industry’s capacity utilization rate hits 82.3%

The U.S. steel sector reached a capacity utilization rate of 82.3% for the year through Jan. 18, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
Looking for metal price forecasting and data analysis in one easy-to-use platform? Inquire about MetalMiner Insights today!
Production for the year to date reached 4.94 million tons, up 2.6% from production during the same period last year (when capacity utilization rate reached 80.4%).

Meanwhile, for the week ending Jan. 18, 2020, domestic raw steel production was 1.93 million net tons at a capacity utilization rate of 82.7%. The weekly production total marked a 3.0% increase from the week ending Jan. 18, 2019, when production reached 1.87 million tons at a capacity utilization rate of 80.4%.
In addition, production for the week ending Jan. 18, 2020, was up 0.3% from the previous week,  when it was 1.92 million net tons at a rate of 82.5%.
By region, production for the week ending Jan. 18, 2020 broke down as such:

• Northeast: 216,000 net tons
• Great Lakes: 686,000 net tons
• Midwest: 208,000 net tons
• Southern: 730,000 net tons
• Western: 88,000 net tons

Steel prices make gains

From the price side, U.S. steel prices have continued to trend upward after seemingly hitting a bottom from mid-October to mid-November.
The U.S. CRC price is up 2.39% over the past 30 days, reaching $772/st as of Jan 20.
Meanwhile, U.S. HDG is up 1.92% over the same period to $850/st.
U.S. HRC is up 3.21% to $578/st.
Keep up to date on everything going on in the world of trade and tariffs via MetalMiner’s Trade Resource Center.
Plate prices have surged 10.09% to $764/st.