The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) revealed this week that as the housing and financial crises continue to infiltrate the economies of the US and Canada, steel service center shipments have been impacted dramatically.
The MSCI said that steel inventory levels in the US and Canada continued their string of monthly declines in November, although shipments were also down considerably, resulting in an increase in months-on-hand supply.
The MSCI data show that US service centers' steel product inventories at the end of November totaled 9.1 million net tons (nt), their lowest level in 13 years. The end of November inventory total reflects a decrease of nine percent month-on-month and a drop of 11 percent year-on-year.
However, steel shipments from US service centers decreased in November to 2.71 million nt, which is down 32.7 percent year-on-year and 24.7 percent less than October shipments. The last time year-over-year steel shipments declined by this magnitude was during the 1980-82 recession, the MSCI said. At current shipping rates, inventories equaled a 3.4-month supply, which is sharply up from October.
From January through the end of November, cumulative US steel shipments from service centers amounted to 44.4 million nt, which is down 9.3 percent compared with the same period last year.
Canadian steel service centers also saw inventories and shipments decline in November. In the month in question Canadian steel inventories fell to 1.2 million nt, their lowest level since the statistical series began with the January 1995 data, showing a decline of 28.1 percent from November 2007 and equaling a 2.7-month supply. Service center shipments of steel in Canada fell 30.2 percent in November from the same month of last year, to 449,000 nt.
The MSCI attributed the steep reduction in US and Canadian steel service center shipments to the turmoil in the housing and financial markets, commenting that steel buyers in November remained in a "wait and see mode."