Flat Rolled Inventories Rise While Shipments Up Just 0.6%

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released steel service center shipment and inventories for the month of February. The 20 day month was impacted by severe weather around the country and saw total steel shipments drop from 3,648,200 tons in January to 3,380,000 tons during February. Even so, the daily shipping rate rose to 169,000 tons per day which represents a very small uptick from the 168,400 tons per day shipped in February 2013.

Distributor inventories (total steel products) closed the month at 8,576,300 tons up slightly from January which pushed the number of months supply to 2.5 on both a seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted basis. January ended at 2.3 (unadjusted) and 2.5 (SA). The number of months supply at the end of February 2014 matched the previous year, although inventories are up 0.8 percent this year over last.