China mills' steel stocks grow slowly by 1%

Stocks of the five major finished steel products at the 184 Chinese steelmakers Mysteel surveys weekly continued to grow by another 1% on week over August 13-19. However, the rise was slower compared with the prior week's 3.7% climb, thanks to a dip in output and firm consumption among end-users, Mysteel Global learned.

Total tonnage of the five items comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate held by the surveyed steel mills registered 6.9 million tonnes as of August 19, higher by 28.5% from one year earlier, the survey showed.

Some domestic steel mills conducted maintenance over the past week, which resulted in a slight decline in finished steel production. Over August 13-19, total production of the five major steel products among the surveyed steelmakers reached 10.9 million tonnes, a week-on-week decline of 0.9% after the prior week's increase.

Domestic steel demand remained almost stable over the past week with the uptick in consumption seen among end-users, even though outdoor construction work had been hampered in most regions to some extent by the hot summer weather, Mysteel Global notes.

Mysteel's daily survey among the 237 trading houses across China showed that daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil reached 218,503 tonnes/day over August 13-19, up 3% on week.

"Many traders are not so active in restocking for the time being, given their high stocks at hand and the volatility in steel prices," a market source in Shanghai commented.

Over August 14-20, inventories of the five major products at commercial warehouses in 132 cities reversed up after sliding for two weeks, gaining a tiny 0.2% on week to 22.64 million tonnes, another Mysteel survey showed.

As of August 19, China's national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, an indicator of domestic steel market sentiment, was assessed at Yuan 3,851/tonne ($556/t) including the 13% VAT, reversing down by a tiny Yuan 1/t on day but up Yuan 13/t on week, according to Mysteel's data.

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.

Photo: World Steel