After increasing their steel and aluminum delivery volumes during August, U.S. metals service centers turned in much lower totals during September, and Canadian centers showed slight increases in steel shipments but a small decline in aluminum deliveries. Those results reflect the month-to-month change in activity, while the year-to-year results declined “across the board,” according to the Metals Service Center Institute.
The figures are drawn from MSCI’s Monthly Activity Report, which details 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 3.04 million tons of steel products during September, 9.9% less than during August and 6.6% less than during September 2015. The daily shipping rate fell by nearly 2 tons to 145 tons/day during September, and year-to-date steel shipments total rose to 28.7 million tons, down 6.8% versus the January-September 2015 total.
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