Posted on 15 Aug 2025
Stocks of the five major finished steel products held by Chinese traders sampled by Mysteel increased for a fifth consecutive week over August 8-14, rising by 1.8% on week, Mysteel's latest survey shows. The continued build-up reflects sluggish end-user demand, with heavy rains and high temperatures still curbing steel consumption, market sources said.
The inventories of rebar, wire rod, medium plate, hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide tracked by Mysteel had mounted by 288,000 tonnes on week as of Thursday to hit a three-month high of 15.9 million tonnes.
Stocks of rebar contributed the most to the build-up in total inventories, with the tonnage swelling by 344,200 tonnes on week to 6.2 million tonnes by Thursday. Second to rebar was wire rod, whose stocks edged up 15,000 tonnes during the same period to 1.6 million tonnes.
"Demand for long steel items from building contractors remains weak, and speculative buying among market participants also cooled," said an industry watcher, citing the impact of persistent heat and typhoon rains on outdoor work.
The spot trading volume of long steel products comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses Mysteel checks was still low at an average of 102,642 tonnes/day over August 7-13, despite a 4.5% uptick from the previous week.
Weather disruptions persisted, with Typhoon Podul – the 11th named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season – making a second landfall in Southeast China's Fujian province on early Thursday morning, bringing strong winds and torrential rain, Mysteel Global notes.
By Thursday, steel inventories among traders in Mysteel's smaller sample across just 35 cities had also grown for the fifth week in a row, climbing by 2.9% or 283,400 tonnes on week to 9.9 million tonnes.
Source:Mysteel Global
