Great Lakes steel production dipped by 5,000 tons, or 0.72%, last week.

Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly in Northwest Indiana, made 684,000 tons of metal, down from 689,000 tons the previous week, according to the Washington, D.C.-based American Iron and Steel Institute. 

Overall, domestic steel mills in the United States made 1.907 million tons of steel last week, up 0.4% from 1.899 million tons the previous week.

So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 12.57 million tons of steel, a 1.4% increase over the 12.39 million tons made during the same period in 2019. 

U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 82.1% through Feb. 15, up from 81.3% at the same point in 2019, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Steel capacity utilization nationwide was 81.8% last week, which was up from 81.4% the previous week and down from 82.4% at the same time a year ago. 

A steel capacity utilization rate of 83.4% last year was the highest level reached in the U.S. since September 2008, according to the trade publication Platts.

Steel production in the Southern region, a wide geographic swath that encompasses many mini-mills and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, produced 717,000 tons of steel in the week that ended Saturday, up from 703,000 tons the week before. Production in the rest of the Midwest ticked up to 202,000 tons last week, up from 201,000 tons the week prior.