Mixed Results For North American Metals Shipments In November 2025

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:

• According to MSCI’s MAR, U.S. service center steel shipments increased 0.6 percent from November 2024 to November 2025 while U.S. service center aluminum shipments rose 0.2 percent. In Canada, steel shipments fell 4.7 percent over the same period, but aluminum shipments were up 7.3 percent.
• Canada posted a $153 million trade surplus in September, reversing seven months of deficits. Total exports rose 6.3 percent, the largest percentage increase since February 2024, due mostly to a 20 percent increase in exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products and aircraft and transportation equipment and parts. Read more at CBC.
• Third-quarter U.S. wholesale trade sales rose 6.5 percent from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025. Operating profits fell 2.9 percent year-over-year, meanwhile, to $27.3 billion. Durable goods sales were up 10.5 percent while nondurable goods sales rose three percent. Manufacturers saw a 6.6 percent increase in sales and a 41.5 percent jump in after-tax profits. Read the full report. In Canada, wholesale sales increased 0.1 percent in October.
• In Canada, total manufacturing sales fell one percent from September 2025 to October 2025 due to lower sales in 11 of the 21 subsectors. The declines were led by a six percent drop in chemical sales and a nine percent drop in wood product sales. Between October 2024 and October 2025, sales were up 0.7 percent.
• Overall U.S. business inventories increased by 0.2 percent from August 2025 to September 2025. Drilling down further, manufacturing inventories were down 0.1 percent, while retail and wholesale inventories increased 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. Business sales remained unchanged for the second consecutive month, with retail sales rising 0.1 percent and wholesale sales falling 0.2 percent. The business inventories-to-sales ratio remained steady at 1.37.
• Regional manufacturing surveys showed some deterioration in the sector in December. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported its composite index fell to +1 in December from +8 in November. Production and employment fell and shipments and new orders were unchanged. The bank said, “growth eased from last month in both durable and nondurable manufacturing, particularly driven by decreases in food, metal, and transportation equipment manufacturing.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its composite index remained below zero for the third consecutive month, falling nine points to -10.2 indicator. New orders and shipments both returned to positive territory, however, and the employment index rose also improved. The Federal Reserve of New York composite index fell 23 points to -3.9 despite the fact that employment, capital spending plans, and inventories increased; new orders held steady; and firms expressed more optimism about the future. One spot of bad news: shipments were down.
• U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 64,000 in November falling by 105,000 in October. Unfortunately, the manufacturing industry shed 5,000 jobs last month, marking the seventh consecutive month of job losses for the industry. The nation’s unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points from September, reaching 4.6 percent in November, or the highest rate in more than four years. In other employment-related news: During the week that ended Dec. 13, 224,000 Americans filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average of first-time claims was 217,500, a decline of 500 from the previous week. The number of people who continued to receive jobless benefits rose to 1.897 million for the week that ended Dec. 5. That number was up by 67,000 from the week before. Additionally, the four-week moving average of continuing claims fell to 1.902 million, down 14,000 from the week before.
• In other economic news: the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index® (LEI) fell by 2.1 percent over the six months between March and September 2025, a faster rate of decline than its 1.3 percent contraction over the previous six-month period; the number of existing homes sold in the United States increased 0.5 percent between October 2025 and November 2025, but were down one percent from November 2024 to November 2025; the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.2 percent from September 2025 to November 2025 and was up 2.7 percent from November 2024 to November 2025 while Canada’s CPI rose 0.1 percent from October 2025 to November 2025 and 2.2 percent year-over-year; and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 52.9 in December 2025 from 51.0 the month before.