SMU Service Center Inventories at 2.9 Months of Supply

Service centers continue to hold flat rolled inventories steady at 2.89 months of supply at the end of November, according to the proprietary Steel Market Update Service Center Inventories Index (SSII). This is now the third consecutive month we have found flat rolled steel distributors’ inventories close to the three months of supply level. Contrast that to the Metals Service Center Institute, which has reported inventories of flat rolled closer to 2.3 months of supply. Earlier today, MSCI reported 2.1 months of supply at the end of October.

With 90 percent of the registered service centers responding to our inquiries over the past four days, we found 38 percent reporting growth in their inventories compared to the prior month. We had 30 percent reporting inventories of flat rolled as being lower than at the end of October. The 22 percent balance reported their number of months of supply as being the same as the previous month.