Shipments of steel and aluminum products by North American service centers showed some improvement during November, with short-term (i.e., month-to-month) rises in tonnages for the Canadian centers and increases for centers in both countries in the year-to-year comparison. Service centers continued to report declines in inventory volumes for both steel and aluminum, according to the Metals Service Center Institute.
The November results are drawn from MSCI’s Monthly Activity Report, which records steel and aluminum delivery totals from service centers in the U.S. and Canada. Service center shipments correspond to a substantial volume of the metals consumed by machine shops, fabricators, and other manufacturers, and the activities at those operations are a reflection of industrial activity in the North America.
U.S. service centers’ steel products shipments totaled 2.96 million tons during November, a drop of 3.8% from October but a 3.3% increase over the November 2015 total. The daily shipping rate fell by about 5,600 tons to 140,800 tons/day, and the year-to-date shipments total rose to 34.77 million tons — which is 6.2% below the 11-month total for 2015.
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