China: Early-Oct inventory up after four consecutive 10-day periods

China's "social" steel inventory (belonging to mill, trader or downstream user) during the first 10 days of Oct'21, in the five major steel categories in 20 key cities was at 10.85 million tonnes (mn t), up 200,000 tonnes (t) or 1.9% from the previous 10-day tally, marking the first rebound after four consecutive 10-day periods.

The inventory is 3.55 mn t or 48.6% up from the level seen at the year's beginning and down 1.79 mn t or 14.2% from the same 10-day period of last year.

If analysed as per the seven regions, it can be seen that except for eastern China and northern China, where inventory levels decreased, the remaining five regions witnessed a rebound to varying degrees.

To be specific, there was increase of 210,000 tonnes or 12% in inventory in south-western China, which in fact saw the highest increase. Central China saw an increase of 40,000 t or 2.9%. North-west and southern China each saw around 20,000 t or 4.2% and 0.8% added respectively. North east noticed an inventory increase of 10,000 t or 2.3%.

On the other hand, eastern China saw a decrease of 80,000 t or 2.8% in inventory while northern China saw a decline of 30,000 t or 2.4%.