Metals Activity Report Shows Continued Softness In Service Center Shipments

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but the Metals Service Center Institute 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 Macroeconomic Current.

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

• MSCI’s MAR, revealed continued softness in North American service center shipments, with both steel and aluminum posting year-over-year declines. U.S. steel shipments fell 4.5 percent compared to February 2025 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while aluminum shipments edged down 0.2 percent. Canadian service centers also reported lower shipments, with steel declining 2.7 percent and aluminum declining four percent from the same month last year. The results reflect ongoing headwinds across both metals markets to start the year.
• U.S. industrial production increased 0.2 percent in February. The Federal Reserve said manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent, the index for mining grew 0.8 percent, and utilities output fell 0.6 percent. At 102.6 percent of its 2017 average, total IP in February was 1.4 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization remained unchanged at 76.3 percent, a rate that was 3.1 percentage points below the reading’s long-run average.
• New orders for U.S. manufactured goods increased 0.1 percent in January 2026 while shipments were up 0.5 percent. Unfilled orders jumped 0.8 percent and the unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 7.01, unchanged from December 2025. Inventories were up 0.1 percent while the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.55, down from 1.56 in December.
• U.S. wholesale sales increased by 0.5 percent between December 2025 and January 2026 and 7.5 percent between January 2025 and January 2026. Durable goods sales were up by one percent for the month while nondurable goods sales were flat. Sales reached $8.44 trillion in 2025, a 4.8 percent increase from 2024. Inventories declined by 0.5 percent in January, but rose one percent year-over-year.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said manufacturing activity in its region slowed in March. Specifically, the bank’s general conditions index declined 7.3 points to -0.2. New orders were relatively flat while the shipments reading fell to -6.9. The average workweek index was mostly unchanged, while employment rose two points to 5.8. Capital spending expectations appeared to be the most robust in over three years, however. Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region continued to expand in March. Specifically, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia business activity index rose 1.8 points to 18.1. New orders decreased from 11.6 to 8.6 while shipments rose to the highest reading since January 2025. Future activity indicators continue to reflect the likelihood of growth over the next six months.
• During the week that ended March 14, 205,000 U.S. residents filed for federal unemployment benefitsfor the first time, a number that was down by 8,000 from the previous week. The four-week moving average of first-time claims was 210,750, a decline of 750 from the previous week. The number of people who continued to receive jobless benefits rose to 1.857 million for the week that ended March 7, 2026. That number was up by 10,000 from the week before. The four-week moving average of continuing claims, meanwhile, dropped to 1,850,500, a drop of 2,000 from the week before.
• In other economic news: U.S. construction spending rebounded somewhat at the end of 2025, rising 0.3 percent from November 2025 to December 2025 (spending was down 0.4 percent between December 2024 and December 2025, however); the U.S. producer price index increased 0.7 percent between January 2026 and February 2026 and 3.4 percent between February 2025 and February 2026; and Canada’s consumer price index was up 0.5 percent from January to February and 1.8 percent year-over-year.