Market Segment

Service Center Shipping Rate Slowed During October

November 19, 2013

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their service center shipment and inventory data for the month of October 2013. Total steel shipments (all products) were reported to be 3,791,600 tons. October, which had 23 shipping days compared to September with 20 days, had a daily shipping rate of 164,900 tons down from September’s 169,000 tons per day. The October 2013 daily shipment rate was 12,300 tons per day higher than that of one year ago (October 2012 also had 23 shipping days).

Service center inventories ended the month at 8,062,600 tons which is relatively stable compared to the 8,031,400 tons at the end of September. The months of inventory were reported to be 2.1 months (unadjusted) or 2.3 months on a seasonally adjusted basis. The unadjusted number is down from 2.4 months at the end of September while the seasonally adjusted number remained the same from one month to the next.

Carbon Flat Rolled

The flat rolled daily shipping rate dropped from 110,400 tons per day in September to 107,000 during the month of October. Total shipments were 2,461,400 tons which is 254,200 tons more than the month of September but, October had two more shipping days. Compared to October 2012 total shipments improved by 11.1 percent.

Flat rolled inventories ended October at 4,742,100 tons which is almost the same as the prior month’s 4,723,100 tons (+19,000 tons in October 2013). According to the MSCI the month’s on hand at the end of October dropped from 2.1 to 1.9 months on an unadjusted basis and 2.1 to 2.0 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Daily flat rolled steel receipts were 390,100 tons during October. This was 56,700 tons more than during the month of September. The daily receipt rate was 16,978 tons per day. Last year during the month of October was 13,961 tons.

Plate

The daily shipment rate on carbon plate during October was 16,900 tons per day up 200 tons per day compared to the month of September. Total plate shipments were 388,300 tons a 10.3 percent improvement over the prior year’s total for the month.

Inventories stood at 990,900 tons which is almost the same as the 989,100 tons on service center floors at the end of September. Plate inventories are lower by 7.7 percent compared to last October. The months on hand dropped from 3.0 to 2.6 months on a non-adjusted basis and 2.8 to 2.7 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Pipe & Tube

Distributors shipped 10,900 tons per day of pipe and tube products during the month of October. This is slightly lower than the 11,100 tons shipped per day during September. Total shipments were 249,600 tons which is 4 percent higher than during the same month one year ago.

Inventories rose slightly to 713,400 tons at the end of October from the 706,800 tons reported at the end of September. The months on hand dropped from 3.2 to 2.9 months on a non-seasonally adjusted basis and rose slightly from 3.0 to 3.1 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.