Posted on 05 Sep 2025
Inventories of the five major carbon steel products held in the commercial warehouses of Chinese traders in the 132 cities under Mysteel's tracking continued rising during August 29-September 4, according to the latest weekly survey.
The five comprise rebar, wire rod, medium plate, hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC), and stocks of each mounted during the latest survey period. The inventories totaled 1.74 million tonnes, high by another 3.2% or 539,200 tonnes from the August 22-28 survey, with the rise making for the eighth consecutive on-week climb.
Among the five, rebar and HRC stocks posted the largest rises, with stocks of the former gaining by 3.5% on week to 6.94 million tonnes, while the those of the latter mounted by 3.4% to 4.03 million tonnes, Mysteel's statistics showed.
Industry watchers blamed the weakness of steel demand during the seasonal summer lull for the increases. Despite the approach of autumn – when mild weather during September and October usually sees demand for construction steel increase – actual steel demand currently is weaker than expected, causing market fundamentals to worsen further, the sources said.
In fact, over August 28-September 3 the daily spot trading volume of major construction steel products among the 237 trading houses Mysteel regularly follows averaged 94,399 tonnes/day, lower by a sizable 7.5% compared with the August 29-September 4 period last year.
The weakened market fundamentals also drove down finished steel prices generally during the latest survey week. For instance, Mysteel assessed China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,282/tonnes ($460/t) including the 13% VAT on September 3, down considerably by Yuan 52/t from August 27.
Meanwhile, inventories of the five major steel products among traders in Mysteel's smaller sample across only 35 cities had mounted by 3% or 313,000 tonnes to reach 1.08 million tonnes as of September 4, also based on Mysteel's latest data.
Source:Mysteel Global
