Steel Mills
November 19, 2013
Service Center Shipping Rate Slowed During October
Written by John Packard
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their service center shipment and inventory data for the month of October 2013. Total steel shipments (all products) were reported to be 3,791,600 tons. October, which had 23 shipping days compared to September with 20 days, had a daily shipping rate of 164,900 tons down from September’s 169,000 tons per day. The October 2013 daily shipment rate was 12,300 tons per day higher than that of one year ago (October 2012 also had 23 shipping days).
Service center inventories ended the month at 8,062,600 tons which is relatively stable compared to the 8,031,400 tons at the end of September. The months of inventory were reported to be 2.1 months (unadjusted) or 2.3 months on a seasonally adjusted basis. The unadjusted number is down from 2.4 months at the end of September while the seasonally adjusted number remained the same from one month to the next.
