U.S. steel production continued to decline as of the start of April in response to decreased demand from the automotive and construction sectors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the week ending April 4, domestic raw steel production was 1.53 million net tons, while the capability utilization rate was 68.5 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Washington. This is an 18.9 percent decrease compared with production of 1.89 million net tons during the week ending April 4, 2019, when the capability utilization rate was 81.3 percent. It also is a decline of 8.1 percent from production during the previous week of this year, which ended March 28. During that week, production was 1.67 million net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 71.6 percent.

Adjusted year-to-date production through April 4 was 25.07 million net tons at a capability utilization rate of 79.4 percent. That is down 2.7 percent from the 25.77 million net tons produced during the same period last year, when the capability utilization rate was 81.5 percent, AISI says.

Broken down by districts, during the week ended April 4 of this year, the Northeast produced 194,000 net tons, the Great Lakes produced 549,000 net tons, the Midwest produced 139,000 net tons; the South produced 602,000 net tons and the West produced 50,000 net tons.

Additionally, steel import permits increased in March, according to AISI, though they have decreased for the first quarter of the year.

Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, steel import permit applications for the month of March totaled 2.23 million net tons. This was a 24 percent increase from the 1.87 million permit tons recorded in February and a 53.9 percent increase from the February final imports total of 1.51 million tons. Import permit tonnage for finished steel in March was 1.54 million tons, up 14.6 percent from the final imports total of 1.35 million tons in February.

For the first three months of 2020 (including March SIMA permits and February final imports), total and finished steel imports were 6.98 million net tons and 4.54 million net tons, down 14.7 percent and 25 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2019. The estimated finished steel import market share in March is 17 percent and is 17 percent year to date.

Finished steel imports with large increases in March permits versus the February final imports included oil country goods (up 101 percent), line pipe (up 66 percent), structural pipe and tubing (up 57 percent), tin-free steel (up 47 percent), cold-rolled sheets (up 34 percent), hot-rolled bars (up 34 percent), cut lengths plates (up 28 percent), wire rods (up 21 percent), sheets and strip hot-dipped galvanized (up 14 percent), standard pipe (up 14 percent) and drawn wire (up 14 percent). Products with significant year-to-date increases versus the same period in 2019 include tin-free steel (up 35 percent) and mechanical tubing (up 17 percent), AISI notes.

In March, AISI says the largest finished steel import permit applications for offshore countries were for South Korea (231,000 net tons, up 46 percent from February final), Taiwan (65,000 net tons, up 99 percent), Germany (61,000 net tons, up 17 percent), Turkey (60,000 net tons, down 18 percent) and Japan (57,000 net tons, down 18 percent).

Through the first three months of 2020, AISI says the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (572,000 net tons, down 21 percent from the same period last year), Japan (203,000 net tons, down 39 percent) and Turkey (183,000 net tons, up 43 percent).