Posted on 13 Jan 2023
The inventories of finished steel products held by Chinese traders tracked by Mysteel grew again over January 6-12 by another 9.4% on week and registering the third straight weekly rise, the latest Mysteel's survey shows. Behind the further rise was the stronger holiday mood in the steel market that is causing steel sales to slow, as more market participants leave for home to celebrate the approaching Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, sources said.
The stocks of the five major steel items held by the traders in the 132 cities Mysteel surveys climbed by 1.4 million tonnes on week to 16.8 million tonnes as of Thursday, hitting a 2.5-month high. The five products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
"As the week-long holiday break draws near, domestic spot steel trading and consumption weakened further as an increasing number of traders have left the market and many building companies have also halted operations," said a market source.
Mysteel's survey among the 237 Chinese trading houses it follows showed that their spot trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged just 67,290 tonnes/day over January 5-11, plunging by 34.2% on week.
Among the five items, the stocks of rebar and wire rod continued to mount the most during the survey week, with the former growing by 799,000 tonnes on week to 7.4 million tonnes as of January 12, while stocks of the latter rose by 284,600 tonnes to reach 2.2 million tonnes over the same period, the survey showed.
Steel inventories held by traders in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities marked a four-week rise, with the tonnage soaring by 10.2% or 979,200 tonnes on week to a near three-month high of 10.5 million tonnes by January 12.
Source:Mysteel Global
