Posted on 25 Aug 2023
Finished steel stocks at Chinese traders' warehouses surveyed by Mysteel continued declining during August 18-24, the latest weekly survey showed. Survey respondents pointed out that the pace of destocking of long steel products was generally faster than that of flats.
The inventories of five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil and medium plate among traders under Mysteel's tracking in 132 cities decreased for the second week by another 0.8% or 145,600 tonnes on week to 19.2 million tonnes as of August 24.
Within the total five, rebar stocks saw the sharpest fall, tumbling by 206,900 tonnes on week to reach 8.6 million tonnes by Thursday. Also, the tonnage of wire rod thinned by 53,100 tonnes during the same period to 2.1 million tonnes, according to the survey.
In contrast, stocks of HRC and medium plate witnessed on-week growth, with the former rising by 37,500 tonnes on week to 4.3 million tonnes, and the latter mounting by 68,300 tonnes on week to 2.3 million tonnes.
"The further decline in total finished steel stocks was mainly thanks to the fact that the volume of long steel products had kept falling," according to a market source. "Both speculative buying and procurement demand for longs are fine in the short term," he said.
But he precited the accumulation of flats stocks would continue next week due to adequate deliveries from mills to the market. But the pace of traders' sales may be slow, he warned.
Mysteel's survey among the 237 steel trading houses across China it monitors highlighted the differing trends where the daily trading volume of long products – rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil – averaged 156,068 tonnes/day over August 17-23, having gained for the third consecutive week by another 1.8% on week.
Meanwhile, steel inventories held by traders in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities also slipped for the second week, down 1% or 120,500 tonnes on week to around 12 million tonnes as of August 24.
Source:Mysteel Global
