Mysteel’s latest survey among China’s 137 steel producers including integrated and mini mills showed that their rebar output declined further to 2.82 MnT over January 30-February 5, the steepest decline among the five major steel products.
China’s rebar output among these mills fell by 187,800 MT on week in comparison with the total decline of 297,900 MT for the five products also including wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, and medium plate to a total of 9.4 MnT China’s 184 producers including integrated and mini mills under Mysteel’s steel production survey.
Despite a continuing decline in steel output, stocks of the five finished steel products both at the 184 steel mills and the warehouses in 35 cities under Mysteel’s surveys built up further to 26.1 MnT as of February 5 from 23.3 MnT by February 1 because of the disruption of the transportation in many parts of China and the remaining suspension of the construction sites in most of China in the middle of the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
As of February 5, steel inventories at the steel mills grew another 1.5 MnT from February 1, among which, the rebar inventory grew by 816,400 MT, and as of Wednesday, another 1.3 MnT of finished steel added to the existing stocks at the warehouses in the 35 cities, totaling 16.3 MnT as against 15 MnT at the start of February.
Both the increases in steel stocks were within market expectation, though the speed of building up may slow down in the coming weeks as many Chinese steel mills may opt to curtail their hot metal, crude steel or finished steel output as the counter measures should the domestic steel consumption stay in a lull.
China is expected to resume normal operations starting February 10 with people returning to their offices, but uncertainties remain, as over 20 Chinese cities, big and small including Wuhan in Central China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, have been locked down by the local authorities as part of the efforts to battle against the spread of the virus, and citizens from the affected cities will not be able to leave their residences.
On the other hand, many construction sites are expected to resume operations on February 10 at the earliest but some local authorities in the areas that have been seriously hit by the virus have announced to delay the resumption of their construction projects until early March.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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