The stocks of finished steel products held by Chinese traders surveyed by Mysteel retreated for the fourth straight week over March 25-March 31, though the fall was just 250,700 tonnes on week, according to Mysteel’s latest stocks survey.
The inventories of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at trading warehouses in 132 cities nationwide monitored by Mysteel inched down 0.9% on week to reach 26.4 million tonnes as of March 31. This change was the same as in the prior week, the new data showed.
Among the total, the stocks of wire rod fell the most, declining by 119,800 tonnes on week to 4.7 million tonnes by March 31. Those of medium plate slid 73,100 tonnes over the same period to 2.2 million tonnes.
The continuous declines in Chinese traders’ steel inventories mainly reflected firm actual demand and speculative buying among end-users and traders. Most procurement activity was concentrated in Central, North, South, Southwest and Northwest China where current inventories are generally low. This contrasted with the slack demand in East and Northeast China due to the intensive controls to halt the spread of resurging COVID-19 cases, according to market sources.
As of March 30, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, as assessed by Mysteel, was hovering high at Yuan 5,060/t ($798/t) including the 13% VAT, or up Yuan 95/t on week. Prices were chiefly underpinned by active speculative activities in the spot market, a market watcher noted.
Meanwhile, spot sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 domestic traders Mysteel tracks increased by 21,341 tonnes/day or 14.4% on week to average 169,881 t/d over March 24-30.
The inventories of finished steel products in Mysteel’s former smaller sample across just 35 cities also declined 220,900 tonnes or 1.3% on week to 16.9 million tonnes by March 31.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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