Steel, Aluminum Shipments Rise From Pandemic Lows
- According to MSCI’s Metals Activity Report, steel and aluminum shipments in both the United States and Canada continue to improve from lows levels set earlier this year. Specifically, U.S. service center steel shipments in October 2020 decreased by 8.1 percent from October 2019 while shipments of aluminum products decreased by 9.9 percent from the same month in 2019. Canadian service center steel shipments in October 2020 decreased by 6.6 percent from October 2019 while shipments of aluminum products fell 8.6 percent year-over-year. Learn more about the MAR here. S&P Global Platts also discussed the October 2020 MAR.
- According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, industrial production rose 1.1 percent in October though production that month was still 5.6 percent lower than its pre-pandemic February level. Manufacturing output increased one percent while utilities’ production rose 3.9 percent and output at mines declined 0.6 percent to a level that was 14.4 percent below its year-earlier reading.
- Statistics Canada announced last week that wholesale sales in the country rose 0.9 percent to $66.2 billion in September, boosted by gains in sectors that provide consumer goods such as food, pharmaceuticals, and pharmacy supplies.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that its manufacturing survey fell four points from October to November to +6.3 even though there was a small increase in new orders and shipments. Click here to read the full report. The Kansas City Fed’s index also declined this month. In its report, the bank said, “Production of primary metals and nonmetallic mineral products slowed, while transportation equipment manufacturing increased.” Finally, the Philadelphia Fed’s reading declined six points to 26.3 in November due to declines in shipments in new orders. Read the full report here.
- In other economic news: the Conference Board’s index of leading indicators, a gauge of future U.S. growth, increased 0.7 percent in October to 108.2; retail sales in Canada rose 1.1 percent in September, far more than the 0.2 percent advance analysts had predicted; the number of new homes under construction in the United States rose 4.9 percent from September 2020 to October 2020 and 14.2 percent from October 2019 to October 2020; and existing U.S. home sales increased 4.3 percent from September 2020 to October and 26.6 percent from October 2019 to October 2020 to reach their highest level since February 2006.