Posted on 18 Feb 2022
Over February 11-17, retail inventories of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate held by steel traders in the 132 Chinese cities Mysteel samples continued mounting for the seventh consecutive week, mainly as mills delivered some stocks to traders, sources said.
The stocks of those five major finished steel products increased by 8.7% or 2.1 million tonnes from the total on February 10 to hit a 10-month high of 26.2 million tonnes by February 17. Within the total, inventories of rebar and wire rod increased the most, rising by 1.4 million tonnes and 459,800 tonnes on week to 12.7 million tonnes and 4.8 million tonnes respectively as of February 17, Mysteel's regular stocks survey showed.
Steel demand stayed largely lukewarm during the survey period, even though work had resumed at many construction sites by the Chinese Lantern Festival day, which this year fell on February 15. But a Shanghai-based analyst noted that uncertainties remain about the demand recovery as bouts of rain and cold may sweep across many regions in East and South China in the next couple of days.
Mysteel's survey among the 237 Chinese traders it follows showed that their spot trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged just 62,611 tonnes/day over February 14-16 after Mysteel had resumed tracking the data. This result represented a decline of 25,107 t/d from the corresponding period of last year.
Regarding China's domestic steel prices, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment came in at Yuan 4,958/tonne ($783/t) including the 13% VAT as of February 16, down by Yuan 31/t on week but still higher by Yuan 141/t from January 30, the last working day before the Chinese New Year holiday over January 31-February 6.
On the other hand, the inventories of five finished steel products in Mysteel's former smaller sample across just 35 cities also gained further by another 1.3 million tonnes or 8.7% on week to 16.7 million tonnes as of February 17.
Source:Mysteel Global
