August 3, 2018

Raw Data: US Steel Production Since the End of the Recession

Here is monthly raw steel production in the United States since the end of the recession in 2009:

The US averaged about 7.3 million tonnes of steel production per month between 2010-2014. That dropped to about 6 million tonnes in 2015, and we’ve been slowly working our way back upwards ever since. We’ve continued making small increases over the past year, but total production is still barely 6.9 million tonnes per month, which is considerably less than in the entire 2010-2014 period.

Here is iron and steel mill employment in Pennsylvania through May 2018:

To summarize: Overall steel production in the US has been increasing steadily but very slowly since its collapse in 2015. Capacity utilization has been running between 60-70 percent since the end of the recession and is currently at 76 percent, which suggests there’s unlikely to be a major boom in new plant construction. Employment in the steel industry in Pennsylvania has declined by about 2,000 over the past three years and has been dead flat since Donald Trump became president. Despite all this, Trump still fantasizes that he’s the steel king:

Kinda sad.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate