Posted on 11 Sep 2023
Inventories of the five major carbon steel items held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey resumed their decline during August 31-September 6 after the slight accumulation seen the previous week, with the total volume down 3.1% on week at 4.34 million tonnes.
The five major steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate. During the survey period, inventories of all five major steel items fell by varying degrees, with the volume of rebar posting the sharpest on-week fall of 5.8%, the findings showed.
The decrease mainly reflected the fact that Chinese steel mills sped up their pace of shipments over the past week. At the same time, their finished steel production also decreased slightly as more makers observed maintenance stoppages, sources noted.
Over August 31-September 6, total production of the five major steel products among the sampled steel producers under Mysteel's survey slipped for the second week to 9.2 million tonnes, lower by another 0.8% from the prior week.
Besides, steel transactions in the physical market improved somewhat this week with sentiment in the domestic market turning positive and steel prices recovering. This also helped Chinese steelmakers reduce their stocks at hand, Mysteel Global noted.
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 reached 146,916 tonnes/day on average over August 31-September 6, up 3,306 t/d on week.
As of September 6, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,834/tonne ($523/t) including the 13% VAT, jumping by Yuan 77/t from one week earlier.
Although market sentiment has been bolstered by Beijing's new measures to support the recovery of the property sector, domestic steel demand from end-users so far this month has proven weaker than the market had expected, which may dampen further growth in finished steel prices, Mysteel Global leaned.
Inventories of the five finished steel products at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's regular survey also declined slightly over September 1-7, down by 0.9% on week to 19.08 million tonnes, according to the survey.
Table 1 Five major steel products stocks at mills (Aug 31-Sept 6)
Product | Volume ('000 t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
Rebar | 1,846.1 | -5.8% | -10.1% | -17.3% |
Wire rod | 569.1 | -0.3% | -2.5% | -27.6% |
HR sheet | 852.3 | -1.1% | -0.7% | 4.9% |
CR sheet | 313.4 | -1.1% | 1.6% | -17.1% |
Medium plate | 758.6 | -1.6% | 1.9% | 0.7% |
Total | 4,339.5 | -3.1% | -4.6% | -12.6% |
Table 2 Five major steel products stocks at traders (Sept 1-7)
Product | Volume (mln t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
Rebar | 8.26 | -3.1% | -7.4% | 10.2% |
Wire rod | 2.11 | 0.4% | -4.4% | -22.2% |
HR sheet | 4.40 | 1.1% | 4.8% | 13.7% |
CR sheet | 1.85 | -1.4% | -1.3% | -13.3% |
Medium plate | 2.46 | 2.3% | 7.8% | 14.5% |
Total | 19.08 | -0.9% | -2.0% | 3.9% |
Note: Mysteel has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders' steel inventories since March 19 2020 to better represent the market with bigger sample sizes:
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is increased to 429 warehouses in 132 Chinese cities from the previous 215 warehouses in 35 cities.
Hot-rolled coil (HRC): Sample size is increased to 194 warehouses in 55 cities from the previous 138 warehouses in 33 cities.
Cold-rolled coil (CRC): Sample size is increased to 182 warehouses in 29 cities from the previous 134 warehouses in 26 cities.
Medium plate: Sample size is increased to 217 warehouses in 65 cities from the previous 132 warehouses in 31 cities.
Source:Mysteel Global
