Posted on 27 Oct 2023
Inventories of the five major carbon steel items held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey declined again during October 19-25 to reach 4.52 million tonnes, down for the second week by another 2.3% on week.
The five major steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate, and inventories of all five steel items slipped by varying degrees during the survey period, the results showed.
Transactions in the physical market remained stable overall during the past week, after the central government had announced it was issuing an additional Yuan 1 trillion worth of treasury bonds to support economic growth, which also gave a boost to sentiment in the domestic steel market.
Though some end-users and traders returned to the market for replenishment, others preferred to wait and see after noting the rebound in spot steel prices, Mysteel Global learned.
Over October 19-25, 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 153,643 tonnes/day on average, dipping by 2,670 t/d from the prior week.
The positive sentiment helped China's finished steel prices to recover this week. The national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,836/tonne ($524/t) including the 13% VAT as of October 25, higher by Yuan 15/t compared with one week before.
As for the derivative market, the most-traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for delivery in January 2024 strengthened for a second day on Wednesday and closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,673/t, up by Yuan 39/t from the settlement price on October 18.
Steel output among the sampled Chinese steelmakers recovered slightly after the continuous fall over the past three weeks, with the total volume up 0.5% on week at 9.06 million tonnes, the findings showed.
Meanwhile, inventories of the five finished steel products at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's regular survey declined for a third week to 16.98 million tonnes over October 20-26, down by another 4.3% on week, according to the survey.
Source:Mysteel Global
