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    What Did SMU Forecast for Distributor Shipments & Inventories for June?

    Written by John Packard


    The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) will report June inventories and shipments on Friday of this week. The world is keenly interested in how much steel the distributors are holding on their floors and how June will compare not only to May’s totals but to June 2014 totals as well.

    The real test, however, will be on the amount of flat rolled inventories still being held on service center floors and the number of month’s supply that will be reported. Anything less than a daily shipment rate on flat rolled of 110,000 tons per day will be a disappointment. We also believe the excessive inventories at the service centers should be down from 673,000 tons to 405,000 tons. We will explain that number in a moment.

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