Despite the sharp downward revision to January's total, new home sales continued to show growth in February. February new home sales came in at a 640,000 unit rate, up 1.1% from January but still down 19.0% from the 790,000 unit rate in February 2022. This is the third consecutive month and the fourth time in the last five months in which sales have increased on a month-over-month basis. The current sales rate is at its highest level since August.
Order activity at domestic suppliers continued to increase, helping to push lead times further out. The average domestic coated lead time increased to 8.8 weeks, up from 8.1 weeks previously. Extending domestic lead times continue to pressure production and provide strength to recent upward pricing movement.
After a sharp drop in January, the Dodge Momentum Index rebounded slightly in February. The Dodge Momentum Index came in at 203.0 in February, up 1.9% from 199.3 in January and up over 26% from last February. Both the commercial and institutional components increased in February, climbing 1.4% and 2.9%, respectively. The continued growth in the index gives hope of continued construction activity growth moving into 2024.
Cleveland-Cliffs kicked off a seventh round of price increases, announcing a $100/ton ($5.00/cwt) price increase on all carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated products, effectively immediately. Later in the week, NLMK USA, Nucor, and other domestic mills pushed prices up as well.
After sliding the previous four months, U.S. light vehicle production increased in January totaling 797,110 units, up 7.9% from December and up 12.2% from the same time last year. This is the tenth consecutive month in which production increased on a year-over-year basis and the highest January production total since 2020, just before the pandemic threw a curveball into all supply chains. Shipments of both cars and light trucks increased, climbing 6.1% and 8.3%, respectively. The boost in light truck production pushed it to a three month high.
After sliding the previous two months, seasonally adjusted retail sales increased in January. January retail sales came in at a $697.0 billion rate, up 3.0% from December and up 6.4% from a $655.2 billion rate in January 2022. This was the largest month-over-month increase in nearly two years. The largest increases in sales in January came from auto dealers, furniture stores, electronic stores, and bars/restaurants.
After climbing in December and January, scrap pricing continued its upward momentum in February settling at $455/gt, up $30/gt from $425/gt. This bucked the trend of the typical February pricing decline, as pricing for prime scrap in February has not increased since 2010. This is also the highest price in seven months and up $130/gt since November.
U.S. light vehicle sales recorded their fifth consecutive year-over-year increase in January. The sales rate increased to a 20-month high of 15.7 million units, up from the December rate of 13.3 million units. Actual sales slipped slightly from December but were up compared to January 2022. Looking on a year-over-year basis, both car and light truck sales increased, climbing 3.1% and 6.0%, respectively.
New orders for manufactured durable goods increased sharply in December, increasing 5.6% to a $286.9 billion rate in December after slipping 1.7% in November. This index is now up four out of the last five months. New orders for primary metals were up 0.3% in December after a 0.1% decrease in November. Fabricated metal product new orders were up 0.3% after sliding 0.1% in November as well.
Zinc pricing skyrocketed again this week, now up for the second consecutive week. Pricing ended the week at $3,443/mt ($1.562/lb), up from $3,301/mt ($1.497b) previously. This is up another 4.7% week-over-week and remains at the highest point since August.
