China traders' steel stocks reverse up on slowing demand
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Major finished steel stocks at the Chinese traders ended its 14 weeks of continuing declines since late March over June 19-24, though the recovery was merely 61,400 t or merely 0.3% on week, mainly as the domestic steel demand had shown signs of slowing with the heavy rainfalls having hit South and East china, while steel mills had yet trimmed the output promptly, according to Mysteel's latest survey.
The stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate among steel traders in 132 Chinese cities added up to 21.6 mn t as of June 24, the last working day before China's Dragon Boat Festival over June 25-26.
Among the five major steel products, stocks of rebar rose the most by 110,800 t or 1% on week to 11.1 mn t, also the dominant proportion of the five, as demand for rebar, a key steel product in the construction sites had been dampened by the non-stop heavy rains in East and Southwest China, according to market sources.
"Our weekly orders have been almost halved from the highest of 1.2 mn t in early June to less than 650,000 t nowadays," an official from a major steel mill in East China told Mysteel Global, admitting that the bookings for construction rebar declined the most.
"Now the (weak) season has arrived, it is the rule of the nature, which is final (that we can't fight against)," he commented.
Mysteel's daily monitor on the trading volume of construction steel consisting of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among China's 237 traders averaged 206,542 t/d over June 22-24, up 9% on week, but way below the over 230,000 t/d for most of April-May, the year's consumption peak so far.
On the other hand, China's steel output had not slowed down the pace at all, and the output of the five steel products rose for the eighth consecutive weeks over June 18-24, up another 122,400 t or 1.1% on week to 11.1 mn t in total, according to Mysteel's data.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
