WEEKLY: Pre-holiday buying clips China's retail steel stocks

Chinese traders saw their inventories of the five major finished steel products at hand decrease further by 4.7% over April 25-30, faster than the 3.5% drop seen the previous week, the results of Mysteel's weekly survey show. Steel end-users had stepped up their restocking activities prior to the country's Labour Day holiday break that commenced on May 1, market watchers explained.

As of April 30, inventories of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil and medium plate held in traders' warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's tracking had hit a three-month low of 16.4 million tonnes, having declined for a ninth straight week by 810,900 tonnes, Mysteel's