Final Thoughts
December 19, 2016
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
A note about the MSCI data and carbon flat rolled inventories. The MSCI reported hot rolled supplies on the floor of the U.S. steel mills as being 2.21 months supply. Cold rolled and coated supplies were under 2.0 months based on MSCI statistics. Cold rolled was reported to be 1.90 months supply and coated at 1.75 months supply.
As one coated service center pointed out, the galvanized/Galvalume inventories represent 36.7 days supply and that is too low. The problem is the mill lead times are into February and, in some cases, close to the end of February. We don’t think coated inventories will bounce above 2.0 months until sometime later in the spring.
