Chinese retail steel stocks down by 2% w-o-w

The stocks of five major finished steel products held by the Chinese trading houses Mysteel monitors regularly declined for the sixth week in a row over September 3-9, dropping by 1.8% or 403,100 tonnes on week, according to the weekly stocks survey.

As of September 9, total inventories of the five major products including rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate held by surveyed traders in the 132 cities under Mysteel's tracking had decreased to nearly 22.6 million tonnes.

Among the total, rebar, HRC and medium plate all showed on-week drops in their stocks, with the volumes falling by 339,200 tonnes, 64,000 tonnes and 18,100 tonnes respectively to about 11 million tonnes, 4 million tonnes and 2.4 million tonnes by September 9.

On the other hand, stocks of wire rod and CRC grew modestly by 17,400 tonnes and 800 tonnes respectively during the period to total 3.4 million tonnes and 1.8 million tonnes, the survey data found.

Meanwhile, production of the five items reversed down by a small 0.1% or 9,700 tonnes on week to reach around 10.2 million tonnes over September 2-8, according to Mysteel's tracking.

As for China's spot steel prices, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, under Mysteel's assessment, surged by Yuan 105/tonne ($16.3/t) on week to Yuan 5,412/t and including the 13% VAT as of September 8.

By September 9, the inventories of five finished steel products in Mysteel's former smaller sample across 35 cities had slid by 2% or 298,100 tonnes on week to 14.3 million tonnes and making for sixth consecutive weekly decline.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com