North American Metals Shipments Improved In April

Connecting the Dots monitors major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but 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:

• The April 2024 MSCI Metals Activity Report indicated U.S. and Canadian steel and aluminum shipments increased across the board compared to the same period in 2023. Specifically, U.S. service center steel shipments rose 10.3 percent between April 2023 and April 2024 while shipments of aluminum products advanced 5.9 percent. Canadian service center steel shipments increased 1.6 percent year-over-year, meanwhile, while shipments of aluminum products increased 14.2 percent. If your company is a subscriber, you can download the latest report here.
• U.S. industrial production held relatively steady in April. Manufacturing output decreased 0.3 percent while index for mining fell 0.6 percent and the index for utilities rose 2.8 percent. At 102.8 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in April was 0.4 percentage points lower than its level from one year earlier.
• U.S. business inventories fell 0.1 percent from February 2024 to March 2024, but were up 0.7 percent between March 2023 and March 2024. The year-over-year increase was largely due to higher motor vehicle inventories. Read more here.
• Canadian manufacturing sales fell 2.1 percent in March. Driving the weak report was an eight percent drop in sales of petroleum and coal products and a 7.9 percent decline in sales of motor vehicles.
• Canadian wholesale sales not including petroleum, petroleum products, other hydrocarbons, oilseed, and grain fell 1.1 percent in March. Sales fell in three of the seven subsectors, including the motor vehicle, motor vehicle parts and accessories subsector, which, down 5.8 percent, posted the largest drop of any sector. Read more here.
• Regional manufacturing readings have been mixed so far in May. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its general activity reading remained positive, but declined 11 points to +4.5 in May. The index for new orders fell from +12.2 to -7.9 while the shipments index fell from +19.1 to -1.2, its first negative reading since January. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s manufacturing index fell 1.3 points to -15.6, meanwhile, marking the sixth consecutive month of deteriorating manufacturing conditions in the region. Still, the underlying factors appeared steady. The new orders and shipments indexes were mostly unchanged while the shipments index actually increased. Read the full report here.
• The number of new homes under construction in the United States increased 5.7 percent from March 2024 to April 2024, but fell 0.6 percent from April 2023 to April 2024. The number of new building permits was down three percent for the month and two percent year-over-year. Read the full report here.
• The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index,  a key gauge of future growth, declined for the second consecutive month in April, falling 0.6 percent to 101.8. Weaker consumer views of the business environment and a drop in new orders drove the drop.
• Prices for imports into the United States increased 0.9 percent in April due mostly to advancing fuel prices during the month. Prices for U.S. exports rose 0.5 percent in April, following a 0.1 percent increase in March. Read the full report here.
• The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 222,000 during the week that ended May 11, a number that was down 10,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims rose to 217,250. In all, roughly 1.794 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended May 4.
• In other economic news: Real average hourly earnings for U.S. employees decreased 0.2 percent from March 2024 to April 2024, but were up 0.5 percent from April 2023 to April 2024; the U.S. Producer Price Index rose 0.5 percent from March to April and 2.2 percent year-over-year; and the U.S. Consumer Price Index was up 0.3 percent from March to April and 3.4 percent year-over-year.