July US aluminum shipments up year on year, inventories down: MSCI

US service centers shipped 128,600 mt of aluminum products in July, up 5.7% from July 2012, the Metals Service Center Institute said Thursday.

Aluminum shipments in the first seven months of the year totaled 867,600 million mt, 5.2% below the same period last year, MSCI said in a statement.

Inventories of aluminum products hit 367,400 mt at the end of July, a decrease of 5.2% over July 2012. MSCI said that at the current shipping rate, this represents a 2.9-month supply in aluminum inventory, down from 3.2 months a year ago.

It said 12,400 mt of aluminum products were shipped by Canadian service centers in July, 0.3% below the same month last year. Canada's aluminum shipments in the first seven months of 2013 were 92.3 mt, 3.7% below 2012.

Canadian service center inventories of aluminum products were 36,200 mt in July, a decrease of 7.2% from July 2012.

Illinois-based MSCI noted that at the current shipping rate, Canada's aluminum distributors were carrying a 2.9-month supply in inventory, down from 3.1 months a year ago.