Steel Products
Service Center Inventory Levels Supporting Price Increases
Written by John Packard
August 12, 2013
Based on our analysis of the recently released Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) data the Apparent Deficit for flat rolled increased to 397,000 tons in June. This comes after a 336,000 ton deficit in May and a 157,000 ton deficit at the end of
April. Our analysis of June 2012 indicated service centers at that time were carrying 289,000 tons more inventory (or excess) than what they needed to be balanced.
The deficit increased due to a jump in the daily shipping rate to 109,600 tons per day. This is an improvement over the prior month and is 2,800 tons per day above last June’s shipping rate. At the same time inventories declined to 4,667,900 tons which is almost 15 percent lower than one year ago.
Here is the relationship between our analysis of the MSCI data and how flat rolled steel prices (HRC) have reacted in the past. As you can see there appears to be a correlation between low inventories at the distributors and the ability of the steel mills to collect higher prices.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products

US HR prices surge ahead of offshore tags
Hot-rolled (HR) coil prices rose further in the US this week, while tags abroad saw minor gains. The result: the margin US hot band holds over imports on a landed basis increased.

SMU scrap market survey results now available
SMU’s inaugural ferrous scrap market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past flat-rolled survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or […]

SMU flat-rolled market survey results now available
SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members.

US HR prices pulling away from offshore tags
Hot-rolled (HR) coil prices moved up again in the US this week, while tags abroad were largely flat. The result: the margin US hot band holds over imports on a landed basis widened further.

ArcelorMittal to start building Calvert NGO electrical steel line this year
ArcelorMittal announced on Thursday that it will begin the construction of its new $1.2-billion electrical steel mill in Alabama later this year. The steelmaker said it is proceeding with plans to build the new greenfield mill near its existing AM/NS joint venture in Calvert, Ala. The ArcelorMittal Calvert plant will have an annealing pickling line, […]