China's retail steel stocks rise after a two-week decline
Inventories of finished steel products at trading warehouses across China increased by 3.3% over December 23-29 after declining for the prior two weeks, Mysteel’...
Inventories of finished steel products at trading warehouses across China increased by 3.3% over December 23-29 after declining for the prior two weeks, Mysteel's latest data shows. Behind the rise was the fact that steel demand continued to soften as more construction sites halted operations, with many workers having tested positive for COVID-19, sources said.
The stocks of five major steel items held by the traders in the 132 cities Mysteel tracks grew by 452,500 tonnes on week to 14.3 million tonnes as of December 29, according to the latest survey. The five products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
Rebar and wire rod witnessed the sharpest on-week gains in stocks, with the tonnage of the former climbing by 295,700 tonnes on week to 5.9 million tonnes as of Thursday, and those of wire rod rising by 88,800 tonnes on week to 1.7 million tonnes as of the same day. The rises in the two items' stocks contributed to 85% of the total increase among the five.
"In addition to the imminent Chinese New Year holiday in late January, there are rising numbers of new COVID-19 infections throughout the country, particularly in the southern parts of China, which further softened steel demand among end-users," said an industry watcher.
The daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses Mysteel monitors dropped further by 16.1% on week to just 111,124 tonnes/day on average over December 22-28, Mysteel's data showed.
The inventories of the finished steel products in Mysteel's former smaller sample in just 35 cities swelled for the second week, rising by 4.4% or 376,600 tonnes on week to 8.9 million tonnes as of December 29.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.