Posted on 22 Aug 2022
Inventories of finished stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China's two core stainless trading hubs, resumed climbing during August 12-18, mounting by 1.4% on week to 627,537 tonnes after the short-lived retreat over the prior week, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.
Among the total, stainless stocks in Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province reversed up 5.4% on week against the previous on-week dip of 1.5%, while the volume in Foshan in South China's Guangdong province continued to fall but at the slower pace of 9.5% on week, compared with the on-week drop of 10.4% over the prior week, the survey showed.
The accumulation of stainless stocks overall was partly blamed on increased arrivals of coils at traders' warehouses this week, Mysteel Global learned.
Over August 12-18, the tonnage of stainless products delivered to Wuxi and Foshan from Chinese stainless mills came in at 54,521 tonnes, higher by 26,395 tonnes on week, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Besides, "along with the depressed demand from end-users which caused warehouse sales to slow, some stainless products imported from Indonesia also arrived at the two ports (Wuxi and Foshan) this week, also leading to the growth in stainless stocks," a market source in Wuxi said. Wuxi, on the Yangtse River, and Foshan in the Pearl River Delta, are also major conduits for seaborne cargoes, Mysteel Global notes.
Chinese stainless prices both in the physical and futures market continued to lose ground this week due to the negative sentiment. As of August 18, the price of 304/2B 2mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi under Mysteel's assessment had slipped to Yuan 16,700/tonne ($2,453/t) in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT, down another Yuan 300/t from one week before.
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 15,185/t, down Yuan 400t from the settlement price on August 11.
Source:Mysteel Global
