According to data Tuesday from the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI), US service centers shipped 3.5 million tons of steel products in the month of June 2012. This represents a decrease of 1.9 percent from June, 2011. For 2012 year-to-date, steel shipments were 22.01 million tons, an increase of 5.9 percent from the same period in 2011.
Steel product inventories were 9.02 million tons at the end of June 2012, an increase of 13.6 percent over June a year ago and a decrease of 0.7 percent from last month. At the current shipping rate, this represents 2.6 months of supply in inventory, an increase of 15.9 percent from a year ago, and up from 2.4 month's supply at the end of May.
Meanwhile, Canadian service centers shipped 531,200 tons of steel products in the month of June, 2012. This represents a decrease of 0.8 percent from June 2011. For 2012 year-to-date, steel shipments were 3.3 million tons, an increase of 2 percent from the same period in 2011. Steel product inventories were 1.6 million tons at the end of June, 2012, an increase of 2.8 percent from June a year ago and a decrease of 2.6 percent from last month. At the current shipping rate this represents three months of supply in inventory, an increase of 3.6 percent from a year ago.