Retail inventories of the five major carbon steel products in the warehouses across China regularly checked by Mysteel eased further and faster over March 20-26, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.
The combined stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate stored in commercial warehouses in the 132 cities Mysteel monitors had retreated by 2% or 478,100 tonnes on week to 23.12 million tonnes as of March 26. The pace of the decline was 0.8 percentage points faster than last week, Mysteel Global calculated based on the survey result.
Stocks of all five carbon steel items recorded on-week declines during the survey week, with the volumes of rebar and medium plate contributing the most to the overall inventory decline, the results show.
Specifically, rebar inventories had retreated by 1.9% or 192,700 tonnes on week to 9.79 million tonnes by March 26, while stocks of medium plates had thinned by 4.8% or 150,400 tonnes on week to 2.98 million tonnes as of the same day.
The uptick in end-user demand for steel was the main reason for the inventory decline as output of the five finished steel items remained largely steady on week, Mysteel Global noted.
For instance, daily spot trading volume of construction steel items comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 95,613 tonnes/day over March 19-25, nudging up by 1.1% or 1,055 t/d on week.
Meanwhile, China's finished steel prices diverged this week, with Mysteel assessing the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,337/tonne ($483/t) including the 13% VAT on March 25, down by Yuan 6/t on week from March 18.
On the other hand, on the same day Mysteel assessed the average price of Q235 4.75mm HRC nationwide at Yuan 3,330/t including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 13/t on week.
Finished steel inventories held by traders in Mysteel's smaller sample of 35 cities also dropped further during the week. The same survey showed that the tonnage totaled 13.88 million tonnes as of March 26, edging down by 1.7% or by 233,300 tonnes on week from March 19.
Source:Mysteel
