Steel Mills

U.S. Service Centers Shipments Up 7% in March

April 15, 2014

The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) published March shipment and inventory data earlier today. Here is a brief synopsis of the numbers and Steel Market Update will produce a more detailed report in Thursday evening’s issue combined with our own inventory results from this week’s survey.

Total steel shipments (all products) were 3,675,200 tons during the month of March up 7.2 percent over the same month last year. The daily shipment rate was 175,000 tons per day which is 6,000 tons per day better than the previous month and 6,600 tons per day better than last year.

Total steel inventories stood at 8,264,900 tons which are 311,400 tons lower than the prior month. The months on hand stood at 2.2 months on a non-adjusted basis and 2.4 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Carbon Flat Rolled Shipments Up 8.2%

Flat rolled shipments totaled 2,411,200 tons which represented an 8.2 percent improvement over last year and were 191,500 tons greater than February shipments. Many within the industry were surprised at the strength of the month since March had a number of weather related issues which were expected to negatively affect shipments.

The daily shipment rate was 114,800 tons per day which is the largest daily shipment rate for flat rolled since June 2008.

Inventories stood at 5,016,500 tons which is down 299,500 tons from the previous month. The number of months on the floor stood at 2.1 months (unadjusted) and 2.2 months (SA).

Carbon Plate Shipments Up 6.7%

U.S. service centers shipped 364,100 tons of plate with an average daily shipping rate of 17,300 tons per day (last month was 17,100 tons per day). Plate shipments were up 6.7 percent compared to March 2013.

Plate inventories stood at 966,200 tons at the end of March. This equates to 2.7 months of inventory on a non-adjusted basis or 2.8 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Pipe & Tube Shipments Up 5.8%

Pipe and tube shipments totaled 237,500 tons for the month of March. The average daily shipment rate was 11,300 tons per day up from 10,800 tons the prior month.

U.S. distributors were holding 653,800 tons of inventory at the end of the month. The number of months on hand was 2.8 months (non-adjusted) and 2.9 months (SA).