Posted on 15 Aug 2022
Fewer deliveries to traders' warehouses led inventories of finished stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China's two core stainless trading hubs, to reverse down during August 5-11 after the prior week's rise, shrinking by 3.4% on week to 619,129 tonnes, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.
Among the total, stainless stocks in Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province dipped by 1.5% on week, while the volume in Foshan in South China's Guangdong province saw a sharper fall of 10.4% on week – as against the on-week rise of 5.7% over the prior week, the survey showed.
The retreat in traders' stainless stocks was mainly attributed to the significant decline in consignments being delivered to traders' warehouses this week. Besides, "two stainless producers in southern China conducted maintenance on their stainless steelmaking facilities in early August, which also affected their shipments to Foshan," a market source in Shanghai said.
However, stainless demand from end-users remained lackluster, and many just returned to the market to purchase minor quantities to fulfil their immediate needs, placing more pressure on domestic stainless prices. Although many stainless mills have reined-in their production, this failed to lend too much support to stainless prices, Mysteel Global noted.
Prices in both the physical and futures markets weakened this week, with the price of 304/2B 2mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi under Mysteel's assessment reaching Yuan 17,000/tonne ($2,525/t) in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT as of August 11, losing another Yuan 300/t on week.
On the same day, the most-traded stainless coil contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for delivery in September closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 15,650/t, down Yuan 610t from the settlement price on August 4.
Source:Mysteel Global
