Posted on 09 Oct 2020
Stocks of the five major finished steel products at the 184 Chinese steel mills reversed up over October 1-8 to a five-month high of 7.1 million tonnes after having declined for five weeks, as the domestic steel market was quiet when the country celebrated the National Day holiday during the period, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
The five key finished steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate, saw their total inventories at these mills’ yards up 10.4% from that over September 24-30, and among the total, wire rod stocks rose the sharpest by 18.3% on week over October 1-8, the latest survey showed.
“It’s rather normal for the steel stocks to rebound over the long holiday (over October 1-8), due to the slowdown in demand from the domestic end-users while the consistent output from the domestic steel mills,” said a market source from East China’s Zhejiang province.
Over October 1-7, total production of these five steel products among the surveyed steel producers came in at 10.7 million tonnes, down 1.8% from that over September 24-30, but it was still 5.8% higher on year, according to Mysteel’s other survey.
Inventories of these five steel products at the traders in 132 Chinese cities also reversed up to 22.9 million tonnes over October 1-8, up 6.6% from that over September 25-30 or in contrast to the on-week fall of 4.9% before the holiday, as reported.
In the near term, some market participants are optimistic, reasoning that October is a traditional peak season for steel consumption in China, and many end-users are expected to return to the market soon to refill their stocks after the long holiday.
It is noteworthy, though, that finished steel stocks at both the Chinese steel mills and traders have been persisting high so far this year, still 37% higher on year as of early October, which have and may still impose pressure on China’s domestic steel prices, and any decrease in demand may soon be factored in, Mysteel Global notes.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Table 1 Five major steel products inventories at mills (Oct 1-8)
|
Product |
Volume ('000 t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
|
Rebar |
3,680.1 |
9.3% |
2.7% |
46.0% |
|
Wire rod |
814.7 |
18.3% |
18.7% |
8.9% |
|
HR sheet |
1,277.3 |
7.1% |
5.9% |
35.5% |
|
CR sheet |
358.8 |
16.5% |
16.5% |
19.8% |
|
Medium plate |
958.2 |
10.8% |
5.4% |
23.4% |
|
Total |
7,089.1 |
10.4% |
5.9% |
34.1% |
Table 2 Five major steel products inventories at traders (Oct 1-8)
|
Product |
Volume (million t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
|
Rebar |
11.80 |
4.6% |
-5.8% |
- |
|
Wire rod |
3.15 |
10.1% |
-4.8% |
- |
|
HR sheet |
4.08 |
9.8% |
14.3% |
- |
|
CR sheet |
1.74 |
2.4% |
5.2% |
- |
|
Medium plate |
2.13 |
10.5% |
9.0% |
- |
|
Total |
22.90 |
6.6% |
-0.5% |
- |
Note: Mysteel has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders’ steel inventories since March 19 to better represent the market with bigger sample sizes, and the on-year comparisons will be filled up when feasible.
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is increased to 429 warehouses in 132 Chinese cities from the previous 215 warehouses in 35 cities.
Hot-rolled coil (HRC): Sample size is increased to 194 warehouses in 55 cities from the previous 138 warehouses in 33 cities.
Cold-rolled coil (CRC): Sample size is increased to 182 warehouses in 29 cities from the previous 134 warehouses in 26 cities.
Medium plate: Sample size is increased to 217 warehouses in 65 cities from the previous 132 warehouses in 31 cities.
The old set of data is still available in the separate databank service until March 112021.
Source:Mysteel Global
