US raw steel production rose again last week, bringing national crude steelmaking capacity utilization to 57.5 percent, its highest point this year.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Monday that raw steelmaking output from US steel producers in the week ended September 12, 2009 rose to 1,373,000 net tons (nt). This figure is up 2.3 percent from the prior week, though down 32.0 percent from the same week of last year.
US crude steel output has been on the rise for 12 consecutive weeks, and the last time that US steelmaking capacity utilization exceeded its current level was in November 2008.
AISI’s raw steel production figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage provided from 50 percent of the US domestic steel producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder.