US domestic steel production takes a slight dive

As was reported this week by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), during the week ended December 23, 2006, raw steel production in the US dropped by four percent to 1.818 million net tons (nt). The previous week's numbers showed 1.895 million nt of raw steel produced by the US. In addition, steel production for the week ended December 23 was down 6.3 percent from the 1.942 million net tons produced the same week of last year. The Southern district produced the most raw steel for the week ended December 23, 2006, with a total of 595,000 nt, followed by the Indiana/Chicago district, with 445,000 nt. The district that produced the least raw steel was the Lake Erie district, with just 79,000 nt. Year-to-date net tonnage as of December 23 was 103,475 million nt, compared to YTD net tonnage of 100,582 million nt on December 23, 2005.