The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has reported that during the week ended October 25, 2008, raw steel production in the US declined 3.7 percent from the previous week, to 1.68 million net tons.
Compared to the same week of 2007, steel production in the week ended October 25, 2008 was down a significant 20.5 percent. Capacity utilization was at only 70.4 percent, compared to 73.1 percent in the previous week, and compared to 88.5 percent in the same week of last year.
AISI noted that production capacity for the third quarter of 2008 was at approximately 31.4 million net tons, vs. 30.1 million net tons for the same period of last year, and 31.0 million net tons for the second quarter of 2008.
Year-to-date, however, US raw steel production is still higher than it was last year, AISI's data show -- at 88.8 million net tons as of October 25, 2008 -- compared to 88.3 million on the same day of 2007.