Steel Products

Service Center Inventories Remain Close to 2 Months Supply
Written by John Packard
August 26, 2013
Flat rolled steel service centers held 2.17 months of inventory on their floors, according to the results from our latest steel market survey completed on Thursday of last week. This is essentially unchanged from the 2.15 months measured at the beginning of the month and in line with the MSCI data reported at the end of July.
Both service centers and end user inventories remain relatively balanced. The percentage of service centers reporting their company was “maintaining” inventories levels was 70 percent at the beginning of August and 64 percent this past week. Manufacturers reported 71 percent at the beginning of August and 75 percent last week. Those distributors reporting their company as reducing inventory levels jumped from 17 percent the first week of August to 29 percent this past week. SMU believes this is due to the opinion at the service center level that mill prices have peaked. Manufacturers remained fairly stable with 19 percent reporting their company was reducing inventories at the beginning of August and last week 17 percent reported the same way. Those building inventories were in the single digits for both distributors (7 percent) and end users (8 percent).

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products

Galv buyers less optimistic about short-term market
“It was a little more of a seller's market as contractors seemed to be protecting themselves against a potential run up in prices," one buyer said.

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. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

US, offshore CRC prices continue to fall
US cold-rolled (CR) coil prices were down again this week, slipping six weeks in a row and seeing the sharpest drop-off since last July.

Asian HR remains much cheaper than US, EU product
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices fell this week, now down seven of the last eight weeks.

April service center shipments and inventories report
Flat rolled = 57.6 shipping days of supply Plate = 54.5 shipping days of supply Flat rolled US service centers’ flat-rolled steel supply edged up in April, as shipments slowed. At the end of April, US service centers carried 57.6 shipping days of supply, according to adjusted SMU data. This is up from 56.4 shipping […]