Auto strike impact on steel not readily apparent

Weekly steel production figures for the United States some three weeks into a series of strikes at manufacturing plants by the United Auto Workers (UAW) do not show a discernible impact on domestic production of the metal.

In the week ending Oct. 7, 2023, domestic steel production of 1,698,000 tons was 3.3 percent greater than the amount of steel made exactly one year earlier, according to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

The AISI also reports, however, that the most recently completed week’s output is down 1.4 percent from the prior week ending Sept. 30, 2023, when production of 1,722,000 tons was recorded.

Just as the UAW-automakers standoff was approaching, Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. announced it was going to idle a blast furnace at its Granite City, Illinois, facility.

“Consistent with actions taken in 2022 to balance our melt capacity with our order book, we will temporarily idle blast furnace ‘B’ at Granite City Works and are reallocating volumes to other domestic facilities to efficiently meet customer demand,” U.S. Steel President and CEO David B. Burritt said in mid-September.

That action may have helped the domestic steel sector’s capability utilization (mill capacity) rate stay near 75 percent, at 74.7 percent last week. That compares with a 75.7 percent capacity rate the prior week and a 73.7 percent rate one year ago.

The auto sector slowdown also may be noticeable in AISI’s most recent weekly breakdown. While the AISI’s Southern district long ago surpassed its Great Lakes region’s weekly tonnage figure, in the week ending Oct. 7, 2023, the gap appeared rather wide: 558,000 tons produced in the Great Lakes compared with 738,000 tons of output in the Southern region.