Posted on 26 Jun 2023
The finished steel inventories held by Chinese traders had thinned for the seventh consecutive week by another 1.5% on week during June 16-22, Mysteel's tracking data showed. However, the pace of the decline slowed down a bit as compared with the prior week's 1.7% loss, Mysteel Global noted.
The total stocks of the five finished steel items comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate among traders' warehouses in the 132 cities Mysteel surveys lost 264,300 tonnes on week to refresh a five-month low of 17.3 million tonnes as of June 22. Of the total, the stocks of rebar stood at 7.7 million tonnes, down by 216,900 tonnes on week, the survey showed.
Major reasons behind the slower destocking were the fact that spot steel trading in China eased as heavy rains in southern China and high temperatures in northern parts of the country dented the already-weak steel demand amid a traditional off-season for steel consumption. Besides, steel mills also increased their output during the survey period, adding some pressure on the stocks, market watcher commented.
Mysteel's survey on the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses it follows showed that trades had averaged 151,809 tonnes/day over June 15-21, down by 6.2% on week.
Meanwhile, production of the five steel items among the 184 Chinese steelmakers Mysteel samples increased by another 60,800 tonnes on week to 9.34 million tonnes over June 15-21.
Over June 16-22, finished steel stocks held by traders in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities declined too, losing 174,100 tonnes or 1.5% on week to 11.1 million tonnes, Mysteel's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
