Canadian Service Centers Struggled in December

Canadian steel service centers shipped a total of 338,600 tons (all products) during the month of December 2012 – this represents a decline of 19.3 percent compared to last year (not adjusted, 16 percent seasonally adjusted) when the Canadian distributors shipped 419,500 tons.

At the end of December, Canadian distributors ended the month with 1,832,800 tons of inventory on their floors – 21.6 percent more than at the end of December 2011. The Canadian service centers are now holding 5.4 months of inventory (+2.0 months) on a non-seasonally adjusted basis and 3.8 months (+0.3 months) on a seasonally adjusted basis on their floors.