Steel inventories at US service centers rose slightly in December, which may signify that service centers' inventory liquidation phase may have come to an end, according to the Metals Activity Report (MAR) from the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI).
MSCI reported this week that the MAR showed that US service centers' steel product inventories at the end of December totaled nearly 12.6 million net tons (nt), 1 percent higher than November levels, marking the first increase since the October 2006 inventory peak of 16.8 million nt. The year-end steel inventory figure, however, was 25.7 percent lower than inventories at the end of 2006.
Steel shipments from US service centers decreased in December to 3.34 million nt, 4.1 percent less than November shipments. For the full year, 2007 shipments fell 6.8 percent from the previous year to 52.18 million nt. At current shipping rates, inventories at the end of December represented a 3.7-month supply, compared to the 3.8-month supply in November.
Canadian steel service center inventories also rose in December, while shipments decreased. Canadian steel inventories rose 1.6 percent from November's total to 1.15 million nt, though the year-end inventory was down 8.6 percent from the 2006 level. Canadian service center shipments were 226,200 nt in December, down 4.1 percent from November, while the full-year shipment total was 3.7 million nt, down 6.7 percent from 2006.
The MAR, based on data from metals service centers in the United States and Canada, is produced by the Metals Service Center Institute and a third-party econometrics and strategy firm, McCoy, Scott & Co.