The cold-formed steel (CFS) framing production output continued to grow in the second quarter 2021, reaching full recovery in output levels after a rocky 2020.
According to the latest Quarterly Market Data Report for Q2 2021, released by the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA):
- Total CFS stud volume in Q2 was up 11% over total tons produced in the same quarter of 2020, and up 1.2% versus Q1 2021
- Q2 2021 structural steel studs were up 6.4% year over year
- Q2 2021 nonstructural steel studs gained 15.4% year over year
“The disruption to the economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to sharp declines in cold-formed steel volume, but that appears to be behind us,” says Larry Williams, SFIA’s executive director. “Total manufacturing volume of steel framing products continues to mirror the growth of nonresidential construction and has fully recovered from the sharp decline in volume experienced one year ago.”
Cold-formed steel stud production is up this year versus last year.
Domestic Raw Steel Production
U.S. steel mills remain well over 80% capacity utilization through July 17, 2021, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
National steel output is up more than 37% higher than at the same time last year, when steel mills sunk to just over half-capacity early in the coronavirus pandemic, says a report on NWI Times. Domestic steel mills in the United States produced 1.859 million tons of steel last week, an increase of 37.7% compared to 1.35 million tons the same time a year prior.
So far this year, domestic steel mills in the United States have made 50.78 million tons of steel, a 17.8% increase compared to the 43.11 million tons made during the same period in 2020, NWI Times says.