Steel output rises after holiday lull

Activity at steel mills in the United States perked up in the first full week of January, rising by 1.6 percent compared with the week that included the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

According to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), in the week ending Jan. 8, raw steel production in the U.S. was 1.81 million tons while the capability utilization (mill capacity) rate was 82.3 percent.

That represented a 1.6 percent rise from the previous week, ending Jan. 1, when production was 1.79 million tons and the mill capacity rate was 80.9 percent.

Output in the first full week of 2022 also was higher by 4.4 percent from the 1.74  million tons produced by U.S. mills in the first full week of 2021. In that week ending Jan. 8, 2021, the mill capacity rate was just 76.6 percent.

Regionally, in the first full week of the new year, the most steel was made in the AISI’s Southern region, with 735,000 tons produced. Mills in the Great Lakes region produced 620,000 tons; in the Midwest region 200,000 tons were made; the AISI’s North East region produced 179,000 tons; and the Western region made just 79,000 tons of steel in the first week of the year.