US service centers shipped 138,400 mt of aluminum products in June, up 13.6% compared with the same month in 2013, the Metals Service Center Institute said Wednesday.
Shipments in the first half of 2014 totaled 808,400 mt, up 9.4% compared with the same period in 2013, MSCI said.
Inventories of aluminum products at the end of June stood at 385,200 mt, up 5% compared with the end of June 2013. This represents 2.8 months of aluminum inventory at the current shipping rate, down from 3% a year earlier, MSCI said.
Illinois-based MSCI also noted that Canadian service centers shipped 13,900 mt of aluminum products in June, up 7.6% from the same month in 2013. Canadian shipments for the first half of 2014 totaled 80,700 mt, an increase of 1.1% over the same period in 2013.
Canadian service center inventories of aluminum products were 37,500 mt at the end of June, up 4.2% from a year ago. At the current shipping rate, Canada's aluminum distributors were carrying 2.7 months of supply in inventory, down from 2.8 months a year earlier.
