Total stocks of five major finished steel products held by Chinese trading houses in 132 cities under Mysteel’s tracking fell for the third week over October 22-28 to an 8.5-month low, with the declining pace at 3.7% or 716,900 tonnes on week, the regular stocks survey found.
Consequently, as of October 28 total inventories of these products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC), and medium plate at the surveyed trading houses were at their lowest since February 5, adding up to 18.6 million tonnes.
During the week, all five items registered on-week falls in their stocks, the survey showed, with rebar dropping the most – by 464,700 tonnes on week to 8.2 million tonnes. Stocks of HRC slid by 167,000 tonnes on week to 3.6 million tonnes, while those of wire rod also dwindled by 42,900 tonnes on week to 2.7 million tonnes.
The Chinese steel mills that Mysteel tracks weekly produced about 9.2 million tonnes of these five steel products during October 21-27, the total having reversed up by 4.9% or 430,300 tonnes on week after a 3.8% drop last week.
China’s domestic steel prices have been on the downward trend due to the pessimistic sentiment enveloping in the steel market. As of October 27, the country’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar reached a 1.5-month low of Yuan 5,435/tonne ($849/t) including the 13% VAT after a sharp decline of Yuan 357/t on week, according to Mysteel’s assessment.
As of October 28, inventories of these five steel products under Mysteel’s smaller-scale survey among the trading houses in 35 cities refreshed a new low since February 5 to reach 11.7 million tonnes or down for the third straight week by another 3.2% or 393,700 tonnes on week.
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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