U.S., Canadian Metals Shipments Are Back At Pre-COVID Levels
- According to MSCI’s Metals Activity Report, U.S. and Canadian steel and aluminum shipments have recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels as April monthly shipment rates in both countries exceeded the monthly rates for any month in 2020 and 2021. U.S. service center steel shipments rose 38.4 percent from April 2020 to April 2021 while aluminum product shipments increased 56 percent during that same period. Canadian service center steel shipments rose 45.9 percent year-over-year while aluminum shipments rose 49 percent.
- According to the Federal Reserve, total U.S. industrial production rose 0.7 percent in April. The indexes for mining and utilities increased 0.7 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, while the index for manufacturing improved 0.4 percent. Total industrial production has increased 16.5 percent from April 2020 (the trough of the pandemic), but is 2.7 percent below its pre-pandemic (February 2020) level. Read more here.
- Wholesale trade in Canada increased 8 percent in March, a reading that was significantly better than the one percent improvement analysts had expected. The growth was due in large part to an 11.3 percent increase in building material. Motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts and accessories (down 0.3 percent) and farm products (down 1.6 percent) were the only two subsectors that saw declines.
- As Bloomberg reports, Canadian industrial prices rose 14.2 percent between April 2020 and April 2021, their fastest pace in more than 40 years. The price increases were driven by a 166 percent rise in the cost of softwood lumber, the largest yearly gain since 1956.
- According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were 8.1 million jobs available in the nation during the month of March. Job postings rose by nearly 600,000 between February 2021 and March 2021 and were 24 percent higher than they were in February 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. Additionally, the number of jobs open is at its highest level since the government started tracking the metric in 2000. Job openings in manufacturing jumped to 706,000 in March, another record high. Read more here. In related news: the number of people filing for federal unemployment benefits fell to 507,000 during the last week of April. It was the lowest reading since the COVID-19 pandemic started, and the number of first-time jobless claims has fallen four out of the last five weeks.
- In other economic news: U.S. import prices advanced 0.7 percent in April while export prices rose 0.8 percent; the U.S. producer price index rose 0.6 percent from March 2021 to April 2021 and 6.2 percent from April 2020 to April 2021; and the U.S. consumer price index rose 0.8 percent from March to April and 4.2 percent year-over-year.