Steel Mills

Distributor October Sheet Shipments Up 9.6%

November 16, 2017

The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) released service center shipment and inventories data earlier this week. According to the MSCI data, flat rolled inventories now average 2.1 months of supply based on the 104,600 tons per day shipment rate reported for the month of October. October 2017 shipments were 9.6 percent better than one year ago.

Total steel shipments (all products) out of the U.S. distributors were 3,402,500 tons with an average of 154,700 tons per day. Shipments were 10.7 percent better than what was reported for October 2016.

Year-to-date shipments of steel totaled 32,964,000 tons, which is a 3.6 percent improvement over year-ago levels.

Inventories are reported to be 7,685,200 tons, which is down from the 7,794,300 tons reported at the end of September.

Carbon Flat Rolled

MSCI reported carbon flat rolled shipments as averaging 104,600 tons per day. Total sheet and coil shipments were 2,301,200 tons, which was a 9.6 percent improvement over October last year. There was one extra shipping day this year versus the 21 days in October 2016.

Year-to-date carbon flat rolled shipments total 22,197,100 tons, which is a 2.6 percent improvement over 2016.

Inventories stood at 4,847,200 tons, which is a bit less than the 4,917,800 tons reported at the end of September. Inventories are up 4.2 percent year-over-year.

The number of months of supply stands at 2.1 months on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis. This is down from 2.4 months of supply reported at the end of September.

Carbon Plate

U.S. distributors shipped 285,000 tons of plate products during the month of October. This is 9.1 percent better than year-ago levels and an improvement of 17,100 tons above the prior month. Distributors’ daily shipment rate was 13,000 tons per day, down from 13,400 tons per day reported as of the end of September, which only had 20 shipping days.

Year-to-date plate shipments are 2,916,600 tons, up 5.9 percent from year-ago levels.

Plate inventories stand at 828,700 tons, up 15.1 percent compared to one year ago. The number of months of supply stands at 2.9, down from 3.1 at the end of September.

Pipe & Tube

U.S. service centers shipped 191,000 tons of pipe and tube during the month of October. This represents a 6.7 percent improvement over the previous year. The number of tons shipped per day was 8,700 tons.

Year-to-date pipe and tube shipments totaled 1,877,700 tons, which is 4.2 percent below year-ago levels.

Inventories of pipe and tube stood at 440,400 tons, which is 4.2 percent lower than last October. The number of months of supply stood at 2.3 months as of the end of October.