Market Data
August 8, 2018
Service Center Inventories “Flash” Report
Written by John Packard
With 58 percent of the service center data providers reporting, Steel Market Update is seeing inventories trending lower. Our “flash” report has inventories at 2.5 months of supply–down from 2.7 months of supply reported at the end of July.
Of those reporting, 43 percent said their inventories are lower than the previous month. About 35 percent reported higher inventories and 22 percent reported inventories as being the same as reported at the end of July.
SMU is also seeing the spread shrink as the number of companies that beefed up on inventory earlier in the year has been shrinking. At the same time, we are not seeing many companies reporting inventories as being less than 2.0 months of supply.
We hope to have the full report completed by early next week.
