US Steel Mills Plan Major Maintenance Outages This Spring, Removing Over 370,000 Tons of Capacity
• Various US steel mills planning maintenance outages from March-June, taking 371,290 tons of capacity offline • Outages account for 22% of annual production capacity of these mills • Market sentiment mixed on whether outages will support prices, given uncertain demand • Mills recently announced price hikes of $825-$840/ton, but buyers hesitant to place orders • Current steel mill utilization at 78.1%, year-to-date production down 3.3% year over year