But steel manufacturing seems to be picking back up, at least locally. Great Lakes steel production rose by 11,000 tons last week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Steel mills in the Great Lakes region, clustered mainly in Northwest Indiana, made 450,000 tons of metal, up from 439,000 tons the previous week, a 2.5% increase.

Overall, domestic steel mills in the United States made 1.306 million tons of steel last week, up 1.3% from 1.289 million tons the previous week and down 29.3% as compared to 1.847 million tons the same time a year prior.

Steel demand started plummeting in mid-March when automakers like Ford, General Motors and Honda, some of the largest consumers of North American steel, temporarily ceased production to limit the spread of COVID-19, forcing Northwest Indiana steel mills to indefinitely idle blast furnaces. But auto plants across the country have come back online and have been slowly increasing production volume, leading Gary Works to recently restart Blast Furnace #6.

So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 43.2 million tons of steel, a 19.7% decrease compared to the 53.8 million tons made during the same period in 2019. 

U.S. steel mills have run at a capacity utilization rate of 66.3% through July 18, down from 80.9% at the same point in 2019, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Steel capacity utilization nationwide was 58.3% last week, which was up from 57.5% the previous week but down from 79.4% at the same time a year ago.

Steel production in the southern region, a wide geographic swath that encompasses many mini-mills and rivals the Great Lakes region in output, was 521,000 tons in the week that ended Saturday, down from 523,000 tons the week before. Volume in the rest of the Midwest rose to 135,000 tons last week, up from 125,000 tons the week prior.

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