Posted on 28 Mar 2025
Finished steel inventories at the Chinese trading warehouses in 132 cities regularly sampled by Mysteel fell by another 3% or 623,500 tonnes over March 21-27, making for a fourth straight weekly decline, the latest survey results showed, reflecting active buying activities among end-users during the survey week.
Consequently, the collective stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil and medium plate stood at 19.9 million tonnes as of Thursday, hitting a 1.5-month low.
Meanwhile, survey respondents pointed out that the on-week growth in flats' consumption outpaced that of longs, as among the five steel items, HRC stocks declined the most, thinning by 175,800 tonnes on week to a nearly two-month low of 4.3 million tonnes by Thursday. The pace at which the HRC stocks fell was much faster than the 82,700 tonnes decline seen during the prior week.
In parallel, those of rebar decreased by 165,700 tonnes during the same period to reach a one-month low of 8.9 million tonnes, the data showed.
The fall in retail stocks was in line with higher sales last week, with Mysteel's regular survey among 237 trading houses nationwide showing that the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil over March 20-26 had climbed by 12.1% or 12,964 tonnes/day on week to average 120,352 t/d.
However, some market sources remained cautious, pointing out that the pace of steel demand growth is slower than expected. "After all, the steel-market fundamentals are slightly weak," a Shanghai-based analyst said, adding the relatively low steel inventories partly support the market dynamics.
By March 27, the latest traders' stocks volume was still lower by some 27.3% from the corresponding period last year, Mysteel's data showed.
In addition, the inventories of finished steel products in Mysteel's smaller sample across just 35 cities also decreased for the fourth week, dropping 2.8% or 356,300 tonnes on week to 12.5 million tonnes by Thursday, a 1.5-month low.
Source:Mysteel Global
