US service centers shipped 127,700 st of aluminum products in May, down 2.8% on the year, Metals Service Center Institute data released Wednesday showed.
Shipments so far in 2016 totaled 643,900 st, down 4.1% on the year, MSCI said.
Inventories of aluminum products at the end of May stood at 385,900 st, down 3.4% from end-May 2015. This represents three months of aluminum inventory at the current shipping rate, flat from last year, MSCI said.
Illinois-based MSCI also said Canadian service centers shipped 10,800 st of aluminum products excluding extrusions in May, down 5.3% on the year.
Canadian shipments so far in 2016 totaled 52,600 st, a year-on-year fall of 9.7%.
Canadian service center inventories of aluminum products were 31,100 st at the end of May, down 17.8% year on year. At the current shipping rate, Canada's aluminum distributors were carrying 2.9 months of supply in inventory, down from 3.3 months a year earlier.
