Posted on 28 Apr 2023
Total inventories of the five major carbon steel items held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey climbed slightly during April 20-26 to 5.73 million tonnes, up 0.5% on week and ending the continuous decrease witnessed during the previous nine weeks. The five major steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
The accumulation resulted from domestic steel producers slowing their pace of shipments in response to lackluster demand from end-users, and sentiment in the domestic market turning negative by the weakness in finished steel prices, Mysteel Global learned.
Over April 20-26, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 150,650 tonnes/day, down 20,783 t/d from that for the prior week.
"Even though the Labor Day holiday (over April 28-May 3) is just around the corner, replenishment among steel users ahead of the holiday period is proving less active than had been expected, given the pessimism in the market," a market source in Shanghai said.
Domestic steel prices continued softening this week, with the national spot price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of home steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment, sliding to Yuan 3,884/tonne ($561/t) including the 13% VAT as of April 26, lower by another Yuan 203/t on week and marking the lowest since November 3 2022.
In a bid to ease supply-side pressure, more Chinese steelmakers conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities this week after noting the persistent fall in steel prices, Mysteel Global noted.
During April 20-26, total production of the five major steel items among the surveyed steelmakers slipped for the second week to 9.56 million tonnes, down 0.9% from one week before.
However, inventories of the five steel products at commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's regular survey thinned for the tenth week during April 21-27 to 21.1 million tonnes, down by another 4.1% on week, the survey showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
