The current week production represents a 13.7 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending April 4, 2015 is down 1.7 percent from the previous week ending March 28, 2015 when production was 1,628,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 68.9 percent.

Adjusted year-to-date production through April 4, 2015 was 23,145,000 net tons, at a capability utilization rate of 72.9 percent. That is down 6.3 percent from the 24,701,000 net tons during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 77.0 percent.

Broken down by districts, here's production for the week ending April 4, 2015 in thousands of net tons: North East: 191; Great Lakes: 591; Midwest: 217; Southern: 511 and Western: 90 for a total of 1,600.

The Raw Steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage provided from 50 percent of the domestic producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder. Therefore, this report should be used primarily to assess production trends. The AISI production report “AIS 7,” published monthly and available by subscription, provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing over three quarters of U.S. production capacity.

Note: Capability for the First Quarter 2015 is approximately 30.4 million tons versus 30.9 million tons for the same period last year and 31.6 million tons for the Fourth Quarter of 2014.  +Includes revised data.

Source: American Iron and Steel Institute, www.steel.org