Canadian Service Centers Drop Flat Rolled Inventories to 4.6 Months

Canadian distributors shipped a total of 522,300 tons (all products) during the month of January.  This is down 6.9 percent (actual) from the previous year.  The daily shipping rate was 23,700 tons per day, a marked improvement from December’s 16,900 tons per day but barely above November’s 23,600 tons per day.  On a seasonally adjusted basis shipments were off 11.3 percent compared to the prior January according to the MSCI report.

Inventories stood at 1,774,200 tons which is down from the 1,832,800 tons on the service center floors at the end of December. This represents 3.4 months supply on a non-seasonally adjusted basis (down from 5.4 months) or 3.7 months on a seasonally adjusted view (down from 3.8 months).