Service Center Apparent Excess Rises to 150,000 NT

Based on the most recent MSCI flat rolled steel data Steel Market Update has calculated that U.S. service centers grew their “Excess” inventories from +2,000 tons at the end of December to +150,000 ton at the end of January.  The “Apparent Excess” is based on a proprietary model which projects future shipments and inventory levels at the domestic distributors.

As you can see by the graphic below (which is available as an interactive chart on our website) January shipments were relatively flat compared to the prior January (3,648,200 total flat rolled tons vs. 3,643,600 tons last January). The chart shows that prior to January we had eight months where total flat rolled shipments exceeded the prior year which helped reduce the Apparent Deficit to basically zero (+2,000 tons) by the end of December.