Raw steel production in the country's Great Lakes region was 665,000 tons in the week that ended Saturday, according to estimates from the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Production was up 32,000 tons from the week prior. Raw steel from Indiana and the Chicago area typically represents the majority of production in the Great Lakes region.

Production in the Southern District was estimated at 522,000 tons during the period that ended Nov. 24, down from about 611,000 tons a week earlier. Domestic mills produced about 1.76 million tons of steel last week, down 2.5 percent from the same period in 2011.

U.S. steel mills operated 71.4 percent of the available production capacity last week, which is down from a 72.5 percent production rate a week earlier.

An estimated 88.1 million tons of steel has been produced so far in 2012 at domestic steel mills, compared to about 85.4 million tons made through the comparable 2011 period.