China's retail steel stocks fall 4% w-o-w

Over November 26-December 2, total stocks of the five major finished steel products at commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel tracking refreshed a 10-month low, falling by another down 3.9% or 623,800 tonnes on week to 15.2 million tonnes. The five major finished steel products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.

All five items showed on-week drops in their stocks. Among them, rebar posted the biggest weekly decline of 400,900 tonnes, hitting a 10.5-month low of 6.1 million tonnes as of December 2. This product also saw its stocks decline for the eighth straight week, according to Mysteel's tracking.

Meanwhile, wire rod inventories fell to their 10-month low of 2.3 million tonnes, after having fallen by another 129,700 tonnes, Mysteel's data showed

This retreat was mainly because traders were less inclined to hold onto high stocks amid market uncertainties, as well as lower steel output, sources said.

Chinese mills produced less finished steel products due to a series of curbing measures imposed on them, Mysteel Global noted. Over November 25-December 1, the output of those five products among the 184 Chinese mills Mysteel tracks slipped for the fifth week, easing by 0.7% or 61,600 tonnes on week to 8.9 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, China's domestic steel prices saw moderate fluctuations during the survey week. As of December 1, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment had softened by Yuan 10/tonne ($1.6/t) on week to Yuan 4,783/t.

By December 2, inventories of these five steel products under Mysteel's smaller-scale survey among dealer warehouses in 35 cities refreshed its 10-month low of about 10 million tonnes, lower by another 3.8% or 389,000 tonnes on week for the eighth straight weekly decline.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

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