Posted on 06 Jan 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) output among the 37 Chinese steelmakers regularly surveyed by Mysteel staged a recovery during the December 26-January 4 week, rising by 3.7% or 109,700 tonnes on week to 3.05 million tonnes, the latest survey results showed.
During the survey week, more steelmakers brought rolling mills and blast furnaces back online after finishing year-end overhauls, leading to the rebound in HRC output.
As a result, the HRC rolling capacity utilization rate among the sampled mills rose by 2.81 percentage points on week to average 77.8% during the survey week, while their average operational rate stayed flat on week at 76.56%, the survey findings found.
On the demand side however, end-user enterprises remained largely disinterested in stock replenishment, while traders were also reluctant to accumulate hot coils at their warehouses for fear of future risks.
Consequently, HRC inventories at the 37 steel mills mounted further by 2.2% or 18,000 tonnes on week to sit at 823,200 tonnes by January 4, the survey results showed.
Similarly, by the same day HRC stocks at the 194 commercial warehouses in the 55 Chinese cities Mysteel monitors shrank further by 2.8% or 110,400 tonnes on week to below the 4 million tonnes mark at 3.9 million tonnes. Most HRC traders were quickly offloading stocks in hand while being cautious about major restocking moves, Mysteel Global noted.
With a weak supply-demand balance persisting in the current HRC market, hot coil prices are expected to continue fluctuating in a tight band in the near term, market watchers predicted.
On January 4, Mysteel assessed the national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC at Yuan 3,290/tonne ($471.3/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 2/t or 0.06% from that on December 26.
By December 31, the last working day before the New Year Day holiday over January 1-3, the most-traded HRC contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for next May delivery ended the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,270/t, up by Yuan 1/t or 0.03% from the settlement price on December 26, the bourse's data indicated.
Source:Mysteel
