Posted on 17 Mar 2023
Finished steel inventories at Chinese trading warehouses sampled by Mysteel fell by another 3.2% over March 10-16, making for the fourth straight weekly decline, the latest survey results showed, mainly reflecting active buying among end-users during the early part of the week, sources said.
The stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate among traders in 132 cities Mysteel follows declined 811,500 tonnes on week to 24.4 million tonnes as of March 16. This compares with the decline of 713,200 tonnes seen in the prior period.
The fall in traders' steel stocks was largely a consequence of the firm sales earlier this week, with Mysteel's regular survey among 237 trading houses nationwide showing that daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar and wire rod over March 9-15 had climbed further by 3.6% or 6,233 tonnes/day on week to average 181,599 t/d.
However, a Shanghai-based source added a cautionary note, pointing out that the pace of steel demand growth after this week's "Two Sessions" political meetings in Beijing may be slower than expected. "After all, spot sales of longs have slid for the past two days," he noted.
In addition to rising risks at the macroeconomic level, domestic steel market sentiment has also been weakened by the rise in production among steel mills, he added.
Over March 9-15, total output of the five steel products among the 184 Chinese steel producers Mysteel surveys rose for the eighth week, increasing by another 0.7% on week to a 4.5-month high of 9.6 million tonnes.
As of March 16, the inventories of finished steel products in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities also decreased for the fourth week, dropping 3.5% or 563,200 tonnes on week to 15.5 million tonnes.
Source:Mysteel Global
