Great Lakes steel production fell by 5,000 tons last week while remaining depressed by nearly 18% this year, with U.S. steel mills only operating at about two-thirds of capacity, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly along the lakeshore in Northwest Indiana, made 576,000 tons of metal in the week that ended Dec. 26, down from 581,000 tons the previous week.
Overall, domestic steel mills in the United States made 1.6 million tons of steel last week, down 1.2% from 1.619 million tons the previous week and down 11.8% as compared to 1.815 million tons the same time a year prior.
Steel production is down by 17.7% for the year while steel capacity utilization has fallen by 12.1 percentage points year over year, largely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that greatly weakened demand earlier this year.
Steel demand started plummeting in mid-March when automakers like Ford, General Motors and Honda — some of the largest consumers of steel in North America — temporarily ceased production to curb the spread of COVID-19, forcing Northwest Indiana steel mills to idle operations and temporarily lay off hundreds of workers.
Demand since has been slowly rebounding, along with steel prices.
So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 78.73 million tons of steel, a 17.7% decrease compared to the 95.7 million tons made during the same period in 2019.
U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 67.7% through Dec. 26, down from 79.8% at the same point in 2019, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel capacity utilization nationwide was 72.3% last week, which was down from 73.2% the previous week and down from 78.5% at the same time a year ago.
Steel production in the southern region, a wide geographic swath that encompasses many mini-mills and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, was 646,000 tons last week, down from 650,000 tons the week before. Volume in the rest of the Midwest rose to 170,000 tons, down from 172,000 tons the week prior.
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