Service Center Steel And Aluminum Shipments Down In August 2024

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) also offers industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight.

Visit MSCI’s website and click on industry data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Economic Pulse.

Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• According to MSCI’s Metals Activity Report, August steel and aluminum shipments decreased dramatically compared to the same month in 2023. Total shipments declined at or near double digits, a reversal from last month’s mostly positive year-over-year shipment gains. Specifically, U.S. service center steel shipments fell 9.6 percent from August 2023 to August 2024 while aluminum shipments were down 14.1 percent. Canadian service center steel shipments declined 11.2 percent year-over-year while shipments of aluminum products were down 17.6 percent.
• The Federal Reserve reported U.S. industrial production rose 0.8 percent in August after falling 0.9 percent the month before. Manufacturing production was up 0.9 percent due in part to a recovery in output of motor vehicles and parts, which jumped nearly 10 percent in August. The index for mining climbed 0.8 percent, meanwhile, and the index for utilities was flat. At 103.1 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in August was the same as its level from a year earlier.
• Canadian manufacturing sales rose 1.4 percent to $71 billion from June 2024 to July 2024 due mainly to increases of sales of petroleum and coal (up 6.7 percent) and chemical products (up 5.3 percent). Sales of wood products, down by -4.8%, declined the most of any subsector. Despite the monthly increase, total sales were down 1.1 percent between July 2023 and July 2024.
• U.S. business inventories increased by 0.4 percent in July. Retail inventories led the improvement with a 0.8 percent surge, while wholesale and manufacturing inventories saw modest gains of 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Business sales jumped by 1.1 percent, significantly outpacing inventory growth and reducing the inventories-to-sales ratio to 1.37 from 1.38 in June.
• There was some good news last week on the regional manufacturing front. New York’s manufacturing sector expanded for the first time since November 2023. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported its general business conditions index rose to +11.5, up 16 points from August while the new orders reading was up 17.3 points and the shipments gauge surged 17.6 points to +17.9, its highest level since early 2023. Unfilled orders also improved. Read the full report at this link. Additionally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its index for current general activity rose from -7.0 in August to +1.7 in September. The indexes for new orders and shipments declined, however, turning into negative territory. The employment index rose and suggested increases in jobs overall while firms said they continue to expect growth over the next six months.
• The number of new homes under construction in the United States surged 9.6 percent between July 2024 and August 2024 and was up 3.9 percent between August 2023 and August 2024. Read the full report at this link. Meanwhile, existing home sales were up 1.3 percent for the month, but down 2.5 percent year-over-year.
• The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 219,000 during the week that ended Sept. 14, a figure that was down by 12,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims rose slightly to 227,500. In all, nearly 1.829 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended Sept. 7, a number that was down by 14,000 from the week before.
• In other economic news: Canada’s Consumer Price Index fell 0.2 percent from June 2024 to July 2024 and was up two percent from July 2023 to July 2024, the smallest advance in inflation since February 2021; and the Conference Board Leading Economic Index® for the United States, which is a key gauge of future growth, declined by 0.2 percent in August 2024 to 100.2.