Steel Mills

Flat Rolled Inventories Rise While Shipments Up Just 0.6%

March 18, 2014

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released steel service center shipment and inventories for the month of February. The 20 day month was impacted by severe weather around the country and saw total steel shipments drop from 3,648,200 tons in January to 3,380,000 tons during February. Even so, the daily shipping rate rose to 169,000 tons per day which represents a very small uptick from the 168,400 tons per day shipped in February 2013.

Distributor inventories (total steel products) closed the month at 8,576,300 tons up slightly from January which pushed the number of months supply to 2.5 on both a seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted basis. January ended at 2.3 (unadjusted) and 2.5 (SA). The number of months supply at the end of February 2014 matched the previous year, although inventories are up 0.8 percent this year over last.

Carbon Flat Rolled

Shipments of flat rolled steel products rose on a daily rate basis to 111,000 tons per day. This is an improvement over the prior month (107,600) and the previous February (110,300). Total flat rolled tons shipped during the month was 2,219,700 tons which is up 0.6 percent over the previous year.

Inventories grew to 5,326,000 tons which are 1.4 percent higher than one year ago. The number of months supply on distributors floor rose on a non-seasonally adjusted basis to 2.4 months (from 2.2) while on a seasonally adjusted basis remained at 2.3 months.

Carbon Plate

Plate shipments totaled 341,400 tons with a daily shipment rate of 17,100 tons per day. The shipment rate is higher than January as well as February 2013 (+3.7 percent).

Inventories of plate products at U.S. service centers dropped during the month of February to 975,800 tons from 1,016,700 tons held at the end of January. The number of months supply rose on a non-seasonally adjusted basis to 2.9 months (2.7 in January) while down on a seasonally adjusted basis to 2.8 months (from 2.9).

Carbon Pipe & Tube

Carbon pipe and tube shipments totaled 216,400 tons at a daily shipping rate of 10,800 tons per day. The daily shipment rate was up slightly over January’s 10,700 tons per day while down from the 11,000 tons per day shipped last February.

Inventories stood at 654,700 tons down from 664,100 tons at the end of January. Inventories are 3.8 percent below February 2013 levels. The months of supply stood at 3.0 months on a non-seasonally adjusted basis (2.8 January) while on a seasonally adjusted basis the number of months is 2.9 versus 3.0 at the end of January.

SMU Note

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