AISI output figure demonstrates steelmaking boost

Steel mills in the United States boosted their year-on-year output by nearly 10 percent last week, according to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

In the week ending Oct. 18, domestic raw steel production of 1.74 million tons grew by 9.7 percent compared with the 1.59 million tons made in the comparable week in 2024, according to AISI. The recent week’s output also represents a 1.3 percent increase compared with the previous week, when production checked in at 1.72 million tons.

According to AISI, U.S. mills operated at a 76.1 capability utilization, or capacity, in the most recently completed week compared with a 71.6 percent capacity rate one year earlier.

Early this week, the CEOs of two different U.S. steelmakers said steel trade policies extended or established by President Donald Trump are helpful to their companies’ bottom lines.

“We expect a favorable market environment to take shape as unfair trade practices diminish, policy clarity improves and U.S. manufacturing continues to expand, driving stronger demand,” CEO Mark Millett of Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc. says.

“Our third-quarter results marked a clear sign of demand recovery for automotive-grade steel made in the U.S., and that is a direct consequence of the new trade environment implemented and enforced by the Trump administration,” Cleveland-Cliffs President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves says.

In the recently completed week, AISI lists its southern region as having produced the most steel (790,000 tons), followed by its Great Lakes region with output of 559,000 tons in the week ending Oct. 18.

As output ramps up in the U.S., generators and processors of recycled steel are watching to see if it will spur scrap demand sufficiently to raise the price of the secondary commodity.

Transaction pricing gathered by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc. for the late September and mid-October time frame shows no sign of a price boost.

From Sept. 21 through Oct. 20, mills in the U.S. paid an average of $24 per ton less for prompt or prime grades of ferrous scrap compared with the previous 30-day period, according to RMDAS tracking.

The obsolete No. 1 shredded scrap grade fared little better, dropping in value by an average of $11 per ton, while No. 1 heavy melting steel scrap nearly held steady, losing just $1 per ton in value.

Improved domestic demand could be helpful in light of what one export shipper describes as a tepid market for exported recycled steel from U.S. ports.

In a report prepared for the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling, Michael Gaylard, who is based in the U.S. for Sims Ltd., cites as one example that in August, recycled steel imports in Taiwan totaled about 147,000 metric tons, representing a 24.5 percent year-on-year and an 8.8 percent drop compared with the previous month.