Raw steel production in the country's Great Lakes region was 679,000 tons in the week that ended Saturday, according to estimates from the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Production was up 20,000 tons from the week prior. The majority of raw steel production in the Great Lakes region occurs in Indiana and the Chicago area.
Production in the Southern District was estimated at 635,000 tons during the period that ended Dec. 22, up from about 632,000 tons a week earlier.
Domestic mills produced about 1.84 million tons of steel last week, down 1.2 percent from the same period in 2011.
U.S. steel mills had a capacity utilization rate of 74.5 percent last week, which is up from a 73.9 percent production rate a week earlier.
An estimated 95.4 million tons of steel have been produced so far in 2012 at domestic steel mills, compared to about 92.8 million tons made through the comparable 2011 period.
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