US raw steel mill utilization rates increased to 77.8% in the week ended May 18, up from 77.2% the previous week, the American Iron and Steel Institute reported May 20.

Production during the week totaled 1.728 million st, up 0.8% from the week ended May 11 when production was 1.715 million st.

Production decreased 1.5% from the corresponding week a year ago, when capability utilization was at 77.9% and production totaled 1.754 million st.

Adjusted year-to-date production through May 18 totaled 33.702 million st, with a capability utilization rate of 76.4%. This is down 2.8% from the 34.659 million st produced in the same period a year ago, when the utilization rate was 77.9%.

Broken down by AISI district, production totaled 136,000 st in the Northeast, 550,000 st in the Great Lakes region, 207,000 st in the Midwest, 765,000 st in the Southern district and 70,000 st in the Western region.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the daily TSI US hot-rolled coil index at $760/st on an ex-works Indiana basis May 20, unchanged from its previous assessment.