September US aluminum shipments rise 8.2% year on year, inventories fall

US service centers shipped 121,700 mt of aluminum products in September, up 8.2% compared with September 2012, the Metals Service Center Institute said Tuesday.

Aluminum shipments in the first nine months of 2013 totaled 1.122 million mt, 3.4% below the same period last year, MSCI said in a statement.

Inventories of aluminum products were 362,700 mt at the end of September, a decrease of 3.7% compared with September 2012. MSCI said that at the current shipping rate, this represents three months of aluminum inventory, down from 3.3 months a year ago.