The Great Lakes and the South, two of the USA's largest steel-producing regions, put in a good performance last week, boosting overall US steel mill output by 1.6%, according to figures released by the American Iron and Steel Institute.
In the week ended Saturday 21 June, US steel mills produced 1.88Mst (short tons), up from 1.85Mst the week before.
The American steel industry's capability utilisation rose to 78.2% from 76.9% and steel output was up 3.1% when compared to the same week in 2013 when US mills produced 1.824Mst and operated at 76.1% of their capability.
The Great Lakes region produced 665kt of steel last week, up 2.6% from the previous week while mills in the south produced 657kt, up 3% from 638kt.
Mills in the mid-west produced 1.2% less steel week-on-week (down to 243kt from 246kt), mills in the North East produced 226kt, down 1.3% from 229kt.
Western mills produced 89kt.
Generally speaking, steel production year-to-date from US mills was down 0.1% when compared to the same period in 2013 (45.12Mst compared to 45.16Mst last year).
The average capability utilisation rate in 2014 was 76.4%, down from 76.7% last year.
Source: American Iron & Steel Institute and Platts