Stocks of the five major finished steel products at the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s weekly survey reversed down over May 27-June 2 after growing for the prior two weeks, mainly thanks to the improvement in demand from end-users.
Total stocks of the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate at the surveyed mills reached 5.87 million tonnes as of June 2, down 5.9% on week. Among the total, inventories of wire rod and rebar posted the sharpest declines of 11.5% and 6.7% on week respectively, the survey showed.
Transactions in the physical market improved somewhat over the past week, a market source in Shanghai said. “After domestic finished steel prices showed some recovery after the slump earlier, traders and end-users have returned to the market to replenish some products,” she explained.
Another survey showed that the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders Mysteel tracks averaged 207,754 tonnes/day over May 27-June 2, up 26,630 t/d or 14.7% from the prior week.
As of June 2, China’s national HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price was at Yuan 5,230/tonne ($818/t) including the 13% VAT, gaining some Yuan 171/t on week, according to Mysteel’s assessment.
Stocks of these five steel products at commercial warehouses in 132 cities nationwide emptied for the fourth consecutive week over May 28-June 3 but at the slower pace of 0.9% on week to reach 21.44 million tonnes, the survey showed.
The improvement in demand also boosted the domestic mills’ enthusiasm for production. The weekly survey of output among these 184 mills found that after the short-lived retreat during the previous week, production had resumed climbing during May 27-June 2, rising by 0.4% on week to about 11 million tonnes, the highest since mid-August, according to the survey.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhangwd@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
Table 1 Five major steel products stocks at mills (May 27-Jun 2)
| Product | Volume (‘000 t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
| Rebar | 3,084.0 | -6.7% | -9.5% | 8.6% |
| Wire rod | 720.7 | -11.5% | -17.3% | 7.6% |
| HR sheet | 979.1 | -1.1% | -6.8% | 0.4% |
| CR sheet | 316.9 | -3.7% | -5.8% | -3.7% |
| Medium plate | 772.8 | -3.9% | -5.8% | -9.7% |
| Total | 5,873.5 | -5.9% | -9.4% | 3.6% |
Table 2 Five major steel products stocks at traders (May 28-Jun 3)
| Product | Volume (million t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
| Rebar | 10.62 | -1.4% | -16.1% | -5.9% |
| Wire rod | 3.15 | -2.1% | -23.9% | -19.4% |
| HR sheet | 3.52 | 0.2% | -4.8% | -4.8% |
| CR sheet | 1.87 | -0.1% | 1.4% | -4.3% |
| Medium plate | 2.28 | 1.2% | 2.9% | 35.3% |
| Total | 21.44 | -0.9% | -12.7% | -4.8% |
Note: Mysteel has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders’ steel inventories since March 19 2020 to better represent the market with bigger sample sizes.
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is 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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