US steel mills raise output to highest level in a month: AISI

US steel mills raise output to highest level in a month: AISI. US crude steel output rose by 13,000 st during the week that ended Saturday, representing a gain of about 1% from a week earlier, the American Iron and Steel Institute said Monday. Steel production in the US has rebounded after earlier setbacks resulting from severe storms that swept across the South and flooding on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, which disrupted barge traffic. Crude steel output totaled 1.871 million st in the week ended Saturday, compared with 1.858 million st a week earlier, AISI said. The capacity utilization rate for all US mills increased to an estimated 76.5%, the highest level this year, according to the Washington-based trade group. For the 25-week period that started January 1 and ended Saturday, total crude steel output was up 4.5% from a year ago at 45.6 million st and the utilization rate averaged about 74.1%, according to the AISI survey. For the week that ended Saturday, steel mills in six key regions increased production, but mills in two other regions had lower output, notably the South. Steel production in the South -- the country's largest steel producing region -- decreased by about 3% to 604,000 st, after weekly output moved up to 622,000 st a week ago from a low of 565,000 st in early May, according to AISI. Meanwhile, steel output in the Indiana/Chicago area increased by 0.8% to 491,000 st, while steel mills in the Midwest region raised weekly output by 1.4% to 278,000 st, the group said. Among other regions, Pittsburgh/Youngstown produced 153,000 st, up 1.3%; Detroit produced 119,000 st, up 6.2%; Lake Erie output was 41,000 st, up 5.1%; the Northeast Coast increased to 101,000 st, up 17.4%; and the West dropped to 84,000 st, down 3.4%. AISI's data is based on estimated raw steel production from a sampling of mills representing about 50% of total US steelmaking capacity.