The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported Wednesday that service centers in the US shipped 3.378 million tons of steel products in October, representing an 11.5 percent increase from October 2010. Steel shipments are also up 15.4 percent year-to-date from the same period in 2010. US steel service center inventories were also up 12.9 percent year-on-year in October to 8.38 million tons but fell 1.5 percent from shipments in September. At the current shipping rate, this represents 2.5 months supply in inventory, a 1.3 percent decline from last year.
In Canada, steel shipments also increased in October, rising 9.9 percent over 2010 to 529,400 tons. Year-to-date, steel shipments rose 11.7 percent from the same period last year. Steel product inventories were 1.49 million tons at the end of October--up 11.4 percent from last year, but a 5 percent drop from inventories at the end of September. At the current shipping rate, this represents 2.8 months supply in inventory, an increase of 1.4 percent from a year ago.