Posted on 01 Dec 2023
Inventories of the five major steel items held by Chinese traders under Mysteel's tracking decreased for the eighth successive week during November 24-30, falling by another 156,300 tonnes on week, according to Mysteel's latest survey. But the size of the decline was half that of the on-week drop of 316,500 tonnes in the previous survey period, as long steel demand shrank further with the weather turning chilly in more parts of the country while steel mills' production kept rising.
The stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil and medium plate in traders' warehouses in the 132 cities Mysteel monitors nationwide thinned by 1% on week to 14.9 million tonnes as of November 30, refreshing an intra-year low, the survey result showed. However, the pace of the decline slowed by 1.1 percentage points from the prior week.
Within the totals, HRC stocks declined the most among the five, shrinking by 110,200 tonnes on week to 3.9 million tonnes as of Thursday. In contrast, rebar stocks inched down by just 2,700 tonnes on week to 5.4 million tonnes, as against the 108,600 tonnes-fall in the prior week, Mysteel's data showed.
"Traders felt the rising stress of trying to sell their tonnage at hand, as more deliveries of steel products arrived in the market just as steel consumption was slackening further due to winter," said a market insider in East China's Zhejiang.
The total output of the five steel items at the 184 Chinese steel mills Mysteel checks grew for the third straight week over November 23-29, rising by another 1.2% or 109,940 tonnes on week to reach a 1.5-month high of 9.2 million tonnes.
Long steel demand from end-users weakened from the previous week, as the trading volume of construction steel items comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 139,523 tonnes/day over November 23-29, lower by 9.4% or 14,600 t/d on week, according to Mysteel's survey among 237 traders' warehouses it monitors across the country.
Meanwhile, steel inventories held by traders in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities declined further but also more slowly, easing by 1% or 94,100 tonnes on week to 8.9 million tonnes as of November 30. The on-week decline was 1.8 percentage points slower than that in the previous period.
Source:Mysteel Global
