US raw steel production climbed 1.9% last week on robust growth in Southern steel output, American Iron and Steel Institute data published Monday showed.

In the week ended Saturday, US mills produced 1.839 million st, up 1.9% from the prior week's total of 1.804 million st. Capability utilization rose to 76.8% from 75.3%.

Last week's output represents a 1.9% decrease from 1.875 million st produced in the year-ago week, when mills operated at a 78.3% utilization rate. First-quarter industry capability is 31.5 million st, compared with 30.8 million st in Q1 2013 and 31.5 million in Q4 2013.

Year-to-date steel production totaled 10.17 million st, down 0.7% from 10.25 million st in the same period last year. Capability utilization has averaged 76.2% this year, down from 77.3% in the year-ago period. In the South, mills ramped up production 6.9% to 639,000 st, compared with 598,000 st in the prior week.

Western steel mills cut production 3.2% to 90,000 st last week, down from 93,000 st. Midwestern mills produced 244,000 st, down 1.2% from 247,000 st.

The Northeast regions production was nearly flat at 211,000 st last week, down 0.5% from 212,000 st. The Great Lakes region, added 1,000 st of steel output or 0.2%, bringing its total to 655,000 st last week.

AISI determines its weekly raw steel production data based on weekly data from 50% of the domestic industry and estimates the rest using monthly production data.