US raw steel mill utilization rates inched down to 74.3% in the week ended March 22 from 74.9% the previous week, the American Iron and Steel Institute said March 24.

Production during the week totaled 1.654 million st, down 0.8% from the week ended March 15, when production was 1.667 million st.

Production decreased 2.5% from the corresponding week a year ago, when capability utilization was at 76.4% and production totaled 1.696 million st.

Adjusted year-to-date production through March 22 totaled 19.171 million st, with a capability utilization rate of 74.4%. This is down 1.4% from the 19.447 million st produced in the same period a year ago, when the utilization rate was 75.8%.

Broken down by AISI district, production totaled 123,000 st in the Northeast, 488,000 st in the Great Lakes region, 224,000 st in the Midwest, 745,000 st in the Southern district and 74,000 st in the Western region.