Posted on 04 Aug 2023
Inventories of the five major carbon steel items held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey reversed up over July 27-August 2 after the decrease during the prior two weeks, with the total tonnage climbing by 1.8% on week to reach 4.37 million tonnes.
The five major steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate, and the accumulation was mainly reflected in the stocks of wire rod and rebar, the findings showed.
Long steel demand from end-users was poor over the past week, as consumption among them was severely impacted by the heavy rains and floods in North China and high temperatures in other regions. Meanwhile, speculative demand also retreated with the softening sentiment, Mysteel Global learned.
Over July 27-August 2, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 131,231 tonnes/day, falling by 28,829 t/d or 18% from the prior week.
Chinese steel prices in the physical and futures markets lost ground this week, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, sliding to Yuan 3,872/tonne ($539/t) including the 13% VAT as of August 2, lower by Yuan 19/t from one week before.
On Wednesday, the most-traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for delivery in October closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,801/t, lower by Yuan 53/t from the settlement price on July 26, according to the exchange's data.
Domestic steel mills' finished steel production continued declining during the past week as more mills observed maintenance stoppages during that period. The total output of the five major steel items among the sampled steel mills slipped to 9.29 million tonnes over July 27-August 2, down another 0.5% on week.
Meanwhile, inventories of the five finished steel products at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's regular survey mounted steadily over July 28-August 3 due to the thin demand, with the total volume rising for the sixth week by another 2.1% on week to 19.2 million tonnes, the survey showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
