The Metals Activity Report from the Metals Service Center Institute shows that, for the second month in a row, steel shipments from metals service centers in the United States and Canada fell by more than 40% from year-ago levels during February. February shipments of steel products from US service centers totalled 2.4 million tons, down 43.3% from February 2008 volume. For the year to date, steel shipments of 5.0 million tons were down 43% from the same period last year. At current shipping rates, month-end inventories of 8.3 million tons, down 16.3% lower than a year ago, equalled a 3.4-month supply. In Canada, metals service centers shipped 385,100tns of steel, a decline of 42.1% from a year ago. Shipments for the first two months of the year of 792,000tns are down 40.2% from last year. Month-end steel inventories were about 1.2 million tons in Canada, down 29.8% from February 2008.