Steel purchasing managers are seeing some stability in the market for the next three to six months in terms of shipments, inventories, incoming orders and order backlogs.

The vast majority (71.4 percent) of steel buyer members of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said the trend of general economic activity will hold steady for the next six months, with only 7.1 percent predicting a downward trend in November vs. 21.4 percent in October and 93.8 percent in the same month last year.

Less than one-quarter of steel buyers (24.4 percent) indicated their inventories were too high compared with demand, up slightly from 21.4 percent in the October survey, with 64.3 percent saying their inventories were "right" compared with 50 percent in the same comparison. Only 14.3 percent said their steel stocks were too low, down from 28.6 percent in October.

Slightly...