US domestic crude steel output-Jan 8, 2005

US domestic crude steel output-Jan 8, 2005

US steelmakers posted an increase in their weekly crude steel production compared to the same period of last year. In the week ending January 8, 2005, crude steel production amounted to 2.05 million net tons. This figure was higher than the 1.92 million net tons recorded in the same period of last year and than the 2.04 million net tons recorded in the week ending January 1, 2005. As of January 1, 2005, crude steel production reached 2.34 million net tons, up by 6.4% compared to 2.20 million net tons recorded in the corresponding period of last year. This data based on reports from companies representing about 90% of the domestic industry's crude steel capacity. Those companies used 92.7% of their available capacities for the week ending January 8, 2005. In the same week of 2004, capacity utilization rate was 81.7%.