Good Times May Be Ahead For U.S. Steelmakers
November 17, 07 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Ruthie Ackerman | Source: Forbes
Steel inventories at the end of October were at their lowest levels in nine years, according to data released on Thursday by the Chicago-based Metal Service Center Institute. Inventories decreased 27% from the same month last year to 12.3 million tons, the lowest level since March 1998, when inventories totaled 12.6 million tons.
Sam Halpert, a senior analyst at Van Eck Global, said that U.S. demand for steel is soft because of the sagging housing market and weakness in the automobile industry. But with inventory levels low and steel shipment levels rising only slightly, steel producers are likely to face higher demand and higher steel prices in early to mid 2008, Halpert said.
