Domestic Steel Inventories Decline in February
03/19/2008 - Steel inventories at metals service centers in the U.S. and Canada dipped in February, with U.S. shipments flat with year-ago volume and Canadian shipments 7.1% higher than in February 2007.
Steel inventories at metals service centers in the United States and Canada declined in February, with U.S. steel shipments flat with year-ago volume, according to the latest Metals Activity Report from the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI). Canadian steel shipments rose 7.1% compared with those of February 2007.
Shipments of steel products from U.S. service centers were 4.26 million tons in February, relatively flat compared with year-earlier volume. Month-end inventories declined to 12.09 million tons from nearly 12.20 million tons in January. Year-to-date shipments, nearly 8.8 million tons, were down 1.4% from the year-ago period. Steel inventories at the end of February were 23.3% below year-earlier totals and represented, at current shipping rates, a 2.8-month supply.
In Canada, steel shipments reached 328,400 tons, a 7.1% increase from February 2007. Canadian steel inventories fell 7.6%, to 1.14 million tons, equal to a 3.5-month supply at current shipping rates.
Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute has more than 420 members operating from about 1,200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere in the world. Together, MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals purchasers in North America, amounting each year to more than 65 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI’s membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Metals service centers inventory and distribute metals and provide first-stage fabrication services.
MSCI and McCoy, Scott & Co., a third-party econometrics and strategy firm, produce the Metals Activity Report (MAR), based on data from metals service centers in the United States and Canada. MSCI tracks the relationships between many external economic variables and MAR shipment levels on a regular basis. The statistical validity of these relationships describes the credibility of the MSCI data and the importance of the metals distribution channel to the manufacturing economy as a whole.
