Stocks of the five major finished steel products held by the 184 steelmakers across China which Mysteel samples weekly declined at a faster pace over May 7-13, falling by another 6.7% on week to 6.6 MnT, mainly thanks to steady consumption among steel end users, according Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
The mills’ stocks of the five items – rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate – were the lowest recorded since the end of the Chinese New Year holiday break last February 2, Mysteel Global notes.
Within the total, inventories of rebar and wire rod again witnessed the largest week-on-week declines over May 7-13, dropping by 9.9% and 9.7% on week to 3.3 MnT and 811,300 MT respectively, the survey showed, indicating that demand for long steel from end-users remains firm, for now.
Among the five, the only rise in stocks was for HRC where the makers’ inventories grew by 1% to reach 1.2 MnT as of May 13, mainly due to the rebound in production, Mysteel Global notes. Over May 7-13, domestic production of hot coils reached 3.08 MnT, increasing by 136,800 MT or 4.7% on week, though the total was still 7.7% lower from one year before, according to Mysteel’s data.
Total production of the five major steel items continued to move up over May 7-13 to reach 10.56 MnT, gaining by another 2.9% on week and touching the highest level since the middle of last August, the survey showed.
In parallel, over May 8-14 stocks of the same five items held by traders in the 132 cities across China which Mysteel checks slid by 4.8% on week to 26 million tonnes, another weekly survey showed. The decline was 1.8 percentage points higher compared with that for the first week after the May 1-5 Labour Day break.
Although demand is basically stable for the time being, market participants are cautious about the market in the coming term, considering that steel output remains high and uncertainties remain about whether demand can be sustained, a market observer in Shanghai said.
As of May 14, China’s national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, a barometer of domestic market sentiment, was assessed at Yuan 3,682/MT ($519/MT) including the 13% VAT, up Yuan 18/MT on week but still lower by a large Yuan 494/MT on year, according to Mysteel’s database.
Table 1 Five major steel products inventories at mills (May 7-13)
|
Product |
Volume (‘000 MT) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
|
Rebar |
3,313.6 |
-9.9% |
-27.9% |
54.2% |
|
Wire rod |
811.3 |
-9.7% |
-33.9% |
30.0% |
|
HR sheet |
1,167.8 |
1.0% |
-6.3% |
25.3% |
|
CR sheet |
416.8 |
-6.7% |
-21.2% |
33.3% |
|
Medium plate |
908.0 |
-0.5% |
-6.5% |
25.2% |
|
Total |
6,617.5 |
-6.7% |
-22.8% |
39.5% |
Table 2 Five major steel products inventories at traders (May 8-14)
|
Product |
Volume (million tonnes) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
|
Rebar |
13.09 |
-5.2% |
-20.3% |
– |
|
Wire rod |
4.89 |
-6.7% |
-22.8% |
– |
|
HR sheet |
4.23 |
-4.4% |
-14.2% |
– |
|
CR sheet |
2.02 |
-1.5% |
-8.0% |
– |
|
Medium plate |
1.76 |
-1.4% |
-9.1% |
– |
|
Total |
26 |
-4.8% |
-18.3% |
– |
Note: Mysteel has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders’ steel inventories starting March 19 to better reflect the market situation with bigger sample sizes, as explained in the previous data update. Month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons will be filled up on later dates when they are available.
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is now increased to 429 warehouses in 132 Chinese cities from the previous 215 warehouses in 35 cities.
Hot-rolled coil (HRC): Sample size is increased to 194 warehouses in 55 cities from the previous 138 warehouses in 33 cities.
Cold-rolled coil (CRC): Sample size is increased to 182 warehouses in 29 cities from the previous 134 warehouses in 26 cities.
Medium plate: Sample size is increased to 217 warehouses in 65 cities from the previous 132 warehouses in 31 cities.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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