Chinese mills' steel stocks fall to 10.5-month low

Inventories of the five major carbon steel items held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey declined for a fourth week during November 2-8, with the total volume down by another 3.3% on week at 4.2 million tonnes, the lowest since late December 2022.

Stocks of all the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate declined this week, with those of wire rod and rebar posting the sharpest on-week falls, the findings showed.

The continuous decrease in mills' inventories was mainly attributed to the drop in their production, as more Chinese mills had idled melt shops and rolling mills for maintenance work during the survey period, Mysteel Global noted.

Over November 2-8, total production of the five steel items among the sampled steelmakers monitored by Mysteel reversed down to touch a nine-month low of 8.73 million tonnes, falling by 4.1% compared with the prior week.

However, steel transactions in the physical market slowed somewhat this week, as the bad weather in northern China had impacted demand there, Mysteel Global learned.

Over November 2-8, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 159,836 tonnes/day, down by 8,115 t/d on week.

The weakening demand meant China's finished steel prices lost the impetus to rise further this week. As of November 8, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,945/tonne ($541/t) including the 13% VAT, edging down for the second day by a total of Yuan 8/t. The assessed price was still higher by Yuan 54/t from one week earlier, however.

Inventories of the five steel products at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's regular survey fell for the fifth week during November 3-9 to reach 15.68 million tonnes, down 4.1% on week, the survey results showed.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.