Rise in China's retail steel stocks slows further to 2% w-o-w
...
Over 1-7 March, stocks of five major finished steel products at traders' warehouses across China continued to accumulate for the 12th consecutive week, Mysteel's latest survey showed. However, traders' inventories posted a milder 2% increase, compared with 6.4% in the prior period, thanks to the on-week improvement in steel consumption from end-users.
As of 7 March, total stocks of the five major finished steel items including rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at trading houses across 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's tracking mounted by another 573,600 tonnes (t) on week to 29.3 million tonnes (mnt).
Among the five items, rebar and wire rod showed the largest on-week rises in inventories, though the pace of build-up had slowed -- volumes climbed by 450,900 t and 102,100 t on week to 14.4 mnt and 4.2 mnt respectively as of Thursday, as against 1.2 mnt and 339,200 t of increases a week earlier.
Mysteel's survey among 237 Chinese trading houses showed that their daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 97,464 t/day over 4-6 March, up 22% from the average over 26-28 February.
However, sources said that the recovery in steel demand was still slower than expected. "The overall market mood remained relatively subdued, and some traders said that they were not optimistic about the release of demand in the near term," a Shanghai-based industry watcher told Mysteel Global.
On the other hand, rising finished steel output and slow pick-up in steel demand had weighed on China's steel prices in the spot market. For example, by 6 March, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,890/t and including the 13% VAT, down by Yuan 107/t on week.
As of 7 March, finished steel inventories in Mysteel's former smaller sample across 35 Chinese cities also climbed slowly by 2.3% or 397,300 t on week to reach 17.6 mnt.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.
