Chinese steel traders saw their stocks of finished steel decline further over March 26 to April 1, falling by 1.6 million tonnes on week – faster than the 1.5 million tonne- decline the previous week – mainly due to the further strengthening of demand, Mysteel Global noted.
The inventories held by traders Mysteel monitors in 132 cities nationwide thinned by 5.1% on week to 29.7 million tonnes as of April 1, the latest survey found. Their holdings of rebar and wire rod declined the most among the five major steel items, decreasing by 821,900 tonnes and 393,200 tonnes to 16.3 million tonnes and 5.4 million tonnes respectively over the same period. The other three items are hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
“Our sales have improved significantly since last week,” a Shanghai-based trader said. “The prices are high and rising too fast, and might fluctuate in a wide range over the near term, so we’ll just have to adapt our business operations to market changes as quickly as we can,” he added.
The domestic price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar reached Yuan 138/tonne ($21/t) on week to Yuan 4,902/t including the 13% VAT as of March 31, still close to the more than nine-year high of Yuan 4,911/t reached on March 30, the data showed. The daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders Mysteel samples across China increased further by 15% on week to 254,354 tonnes/day on average over March 25-31.
The declines in stocks occurred amidst stable steel production, with the total output of the five steel products being down a mere 22,000 tonnes on week at 10.5 million tonnes over March 25-31, according to another survey among 184 domestic steelmakers.
The inventories of finished steel products in Mysteel’s former smaller sample across just 35 cities also declined by a nearly 1 million tonnes on week over March 26 to April 1 to 19.7 million tonnes.
Written by Anna Wu, wub@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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