Posted on 23 Oct 2026
Retail stocks of the five major carbon steel items held by the Chinese traders that Mysteel regularly checks declined slightly during October 16-22, the results of the latest survey show.
Retail stocks of the five major carbon steel items held by the Chinese traders that Mysteel regularly checks declined slightly during October 16-22, the results of the latest survey show.
As of October 22, the combined inventories of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate held by traders in the 429 commercial warehouses in 132 cities Mysteel monitors had retreated by 1.7% or by 295,700 tonnes on week to 17.51 million tonnes, the survey results revealed.
By product, rebar and HRC stocks contributed the bulk of the overall inventory decline, while those of wire rod and CRC stayed largely unchanged. Notably, medium plate stocks have mounted for five consecutive weeks,according to the survey result.
Specifically, as of October 22 rebar stocks had declined by 4.6% or 282,700 tonnes on week to 5.91 million tonnes, while HRC inventories had fallen by 1.5% or 73,400 tonnes on week to 4.89 million tonnes as of the same day.
The speed for the inventory drop narrowed by 1.1 percentage points from the 2.8% slide recorded last week as spot transactions contracted mildly after the post-holiday restocking, the data show. This reflected subdued actual end-user demand for finished steel items, Mysteel Global noted.
For instance, over October 15-21 the spot trading volume of steel longs comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 91,024 tonnes/day, sliding by 3.3% or 3,153 t/d on week.
Domestic finished steel prices declined this week amid the weakening demand, with Mysteel assessing China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,323/tonne ($498/t) including the 13% VAT on October 21, lower by a marginal Yuan 1/t from October 14.
Similarly, the national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC dropped by Yuan 12/t on week to sit at Yuan 3,273/t on the same day, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Meanwhile, finished steel inventories held by traders in Mysteel's smaller sample of 144 warehouses in 35 Chinese cities also declined during the period, with the tonnage amounting to 10.62 million tonnes as of October 22, down by 2.1% or by 231,500 tonnes from October 15.
Source:Mysteel Global
