Market Segment
February 20, 2014
Service Center Intake, Shipments and Inventory January 2014
Written by Peter Wright
Total service center carbon steel shipments jumped by 662,100 tons in January which was a smaller start-of-year bounce than either 2012 or 2013. January tons per day shipments increased by 24,000 to 158,500 tons. In January 2012 and 2013, tons per day shipments increased by 35,000 and 38,000 tons, respectively.
Intake was 167,100 tons, leading to a surplus of 8,600 tons, month end inventory increased by 189,000 tons to 8,081,000 tons. Months on hand declined from 2.79 to 2.32. These inventory statements sound contradictory but this is because MoH is calculated using the month’s shipments and surplus, as described here, is calculated on daily shipments. Daily intake in January improved from 151,760 in December to 167,100 tons in January. Table 1 shows the performance by product in the period November through January compared to the same period in previous years. On a three month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year, total shipments were up by 4.7 percent driven entirely by plate and sheet. Long products, (bar and structurals), and pipe and tube all declined year over year. Intake followed exactly the same trends as shipments. Compared to the end of January, last year inventories were down by 2.7 percent in total, only structurals experienced an increase. Sheet product inventories were down by 2.4 percent.
