Wholesale metals and automotive equipment sales fell by 14.2pc and 2pc in January, according to the latest US Census Bureau data.
Metal sales declined from $16.26bn in January 2019 to $13.87bn in January 2020, while automotive sales fell from $39.95bn to $39.13bn during the same comparable period. However, metal sales increased by 1.4pc from $13.6bn in December 2019, while wholesale automotive equipment sales rose by 0.3pc from $39.01bn during the same month.
Wholesale sales of machinery equipment declined by 1.2pc in January 2020 to $39.68bn from $40.15bn during the same month in 2019. Machinery sales rose by 3.4pc compared to December 2019, when $38.37bn worth of machinery was sold in the US.
Metals supply remained tight in January 2020 with wholesale metals inventory decreasing by 9.9pc to $31.87bn compared to $35.37bn during the same month in 2019. Inventory also declined by 1.4pc compared with December 2019, when traders held around $32.32bn worth of supplies.
Automotive inventory, however, grew by 0.8pc in January 2020 to $69.72bn compared with $69.17bn held by traders in January 2019. It also grew by 0.1pc from $69.64bn worth of supplies in December 2019. Machinery supply also witnessed an increase of 3.4pc in January 2020 to inventory worth $110.5bn from $106.9bn in January 2019. Machinery inventory grew marginally by 0.1pc from $110.4bn worth of supplies in December 2019.