The weekly production statistics published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) points to significant surge in U.S. raw steel output during the week ending March 16, 2019.
The weekly production totaled 1.930 million net tons (NT), which is significantly higher by 5.7% from the corresponding week in 2018. The capability utilization rate of U.S. steel mills too was up from 78.3% to 82.9% over the previous year.
Meantime, a comparison with the prior week indicates that U.S. raw steel production during the week ended March 16, 2019 was marginally lower. The production for the previous week ending March 9, 2019 had totaled 1.941 million NT. The capability utilization rate too was down from 83.4% during the previous week.
The production and capability utilization rate till date this year witnessed notable improvement over the previous year. The production through March 16, 2019 totaled 20.310 million NT, higher by 6.7% when compared with 19.035 million NT during the same period last year. The year-to-date capability utilization rate too witnessed notable jump from 76.6% to 81.4%, AISI data said.
Great Lakes region topped the production with 729,000 net tons, closely followed by Southern region with 711,000 net tons. The output by other regions in net tons is as follows: North East (226,000), Midwest (205,000) and Western (59,000).
Based on current data, the capability for Q1 2019 is estimated at around 30.5 million NT, slightly higher when compared with 30.0 million NT for the same period in 2018.
Charcoal Machine
Carbonization Furnace
Briquette Machine
