North American metals service centers’ October shipments continued to decline on a year-over-year basis, though in one noteworthy instance the tonnages increased significantly over the previous month’s total. Inventories also declined year-over-year, continuing a trend that has been in progress for several months, according to the Metals Service Center Institute.
The data is drawn from MSCI’s Monthly Activity Report, which records steel and aluminum delivery totals from service centers in the U.S. and Canada. Service center shipments correspond to a substantial volume of the metals consumed by machine shops, fabricators, and other manufacturers, and the activities at those operations are a reflection of industrial activity in the North America.
U.S. service centers shipped 3.07 million tons of steel products during October, 9.6% more than during September but 8.6% less than during October 2015. The average daily shipping rate for steel products rose by slightly more than one ton per day to 146.4 tons/day. Through the first 10 months of 2016, U.S. service centers have shipped 31.8 million tons of steel products, which is 7.0% less than the January-October 2015 total.
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