The United States made 87.9 million tons of steel in 2016, a 0.5 percent decline from the 88.4 million tons made the previous year.

Domestic steelmakers used about 70.8 percent of their steelmaking capacity last year, up from 70.1 percent in 2015, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

In 2015, during the worst import crisis in more than a decade, steel output in the United States declined by 10.5 percent from the year before, according to the World Steel Association.

Raw steel production in the Great Lakes region fell to 647,000 tons in the week that ended Dec. 31, a 5,000 ton decrease from the previous week.

Overall U.S. steel output dropped by 44,000 tons tons last week to 1.592 million tons, a decrease of 2.68 percent, according to the AISI estimate.

Capacity utilization nationwide declined to 67.1 percent in the final week of 2016, well below the 90 percent many analysts consider healthy for the industry.