National steel statistics help put individual product requirements in perspective. Raw steel output, production capacity, shipments, and inventories each describe a different part of the market. The US Geological Survey's February 2026 Mineral Commodity Summaries provides 2025 estimates for these measures. They cover the wider steel industry, so a national total should not be read as a total for flat-rolled sheet and coil alone.
US raw steel output and capacity in 2025
The USGS iron and steel summary estimates US raw steel production at 82 million metric tons in 2025, compared with 79.5 million metric tons in 2024. Combined raw steel production capacity was about 105 million metric tons per year, compared with 107 million metric tons per year in 2024. Output describes what was produced during the year; capacity describes the scale of the production system.
Those measures answer different questions. Capacity is not a promise of immediately available material, and a raw steel production total does not specify which grades, dimensions, or finished products are available to a buyer. Keeping the distinction clear helps avoid turning a broad industry figure into an assumption about a particular coil requirement or delivery schedule.
Minimills, integrated mills and scrap
USGS reports that 47 companies produced raw steel from electric arc furnaces at 102 minimills. Its summary also places integrated mills at approximately 28% of domestic steel production. These figures describe production routes and the structure of the industry. They do not establish which mill supplied an individual item or whether that item meets a particular application requirement.
The companion USGS iron and steel scrap summary estimates US apparent scrap consumption at 57 million metric tons in 2025, compared with 55 million metric tons in 2024. Raw steel production was the leading use for iron and steel scrap. The report describes scrap being used together with pig iron and direct-reduced iron to produce steel products for consumer industries.
Read the scrap figure as a material-consumption measure, rather than a product certification. It gives useful context for the steelmaking system but does not identify the recycled content of a particular sheet, coil, or fabricated part. A buyer comparing materials still needs information tied to the product being considered.
Where the steel goes: shipments by market
The 2025 estimates divide net shipments by market classification as follows:
- Construction: 31%
- Steel service centers and distributors: 26%
- Automotive: 15%
- Converting and processing: 11%
- All other applications: 17%
The service center and distributor category is particularly useful when considering how steel reaches manufacturers. It identifies a distribution channel within the shipment classifications. It is not an additional end-use percentage to add to construction or automotive when describing the same published breakdown.
The figures also should not be treated as the customer mix of a particular service center. They describe the national shipment classification, with products beyond flat-rolled steel included. For a purchasing discussion, the breakdown offers market context; the required product specification remains a separate question.
Service center inventories
USGS estimates service center stocks at 6.7 million metric tons at the end of 2025, compared with 6.5 million metric tons at the end of 2024. Stocks are a point-in-time measure. They differ from production or shipments measured over a year, even though all can be expressed using the same weight unit.
A national year-end stock total does not describe the inventory at an individual warehouse. It also does not show the grades, coatings, or dimensions available for a specific order. Use the figure to understand the scale of reported inventories, and keep product availability and timing separate from that aggregate figure.
The global picture
USGS places world raw steel production at about 1,900 million metric tons in 2025, compared with a rounded world total of 1,880 million metric tons in 2024. Compare these figures with US output only as raw steel production measured in metric tons. Neither total is a measure of finished flat-rolled products ready for purchase.
Regional capacity announcements also need a product label. The summary reports that construction began in March 2025 on a southern California minimill with 450,000 metric tons per year of rebar capacity. That announcement concerns reinforcing steel; it should not be counted as an announcement of flat-rolled coil capacity or as evidence of material already available.
Across the figures, the most useful reading habit is to keep the year, geography, product scope, and measurement together. That makes the national and global summaries informative without turning them into a price forecast, a supplier commitment, or a specification for an individual product.