China: traders' steel stocks fall post-holidays
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Mysteel Global: Stocks of the five major carbon steel products held by Chinese steel traders reversed down during 7-10, October 2024 after briefly increasing during the country's National Day holidays, Mysteel's latest survey shows, mainly as spot trading activities had resumed following the break. However, concerns among market participants about the demand outlook are emerging, as the improvement in market fundamentals is proving limited, sources said.
The five major finished steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, medium plate, hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil. Their total inventories at trading houses in the 132 Chinese cities surveyed by Mysteel had declined by 1.3% or 194,900 tonnes from October 6 to 15.4 million tonnes (mnt) as of 10 October, as against the 530,800 t uptick seen during the previous period.
Rebar stocks declined the most, falling by 131,400 t from 6 October to 4.7 mnt as of Thursday and accounting for 67.4% of the total drop in stocks. Second to rebar was medium plate where total stocks dropped 42,800 t during the same period to 2.4 mnt.
Some market participants are concerned about the pace of the pick-up in downstream demand, saying that it was the policy stimulus - not actual orders - that had lifted market expectations earlier on.
The spot trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel's coverage averaged only 131,586 t/day during 8-9 October, lower by 6.8% compared with the last two working days before the holiday.
An industry watcher in Southeast China's Fujian province acknowledged that local end-users are opting to wait-and-see amid drastic steel price fluctuations and were not keen to procure steel items.
By 10 October, the inventories of finished steel products held by traders in Mysteel's smaller sample across just 35 cities had slipped by 2.2% or 205,100 t from 6 October to 9.1 mnt.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.