WEEKLY: China mills' steel stocks up 47% over CNY holiday
Total stocks of the five steel items registered 6.4 million tonnes as of February 6, up by another 2.04 million tonnes from that for January 20-26. Among the total, stocks of wire rod and rebar posted the sharpest rises by 77.4% and 67% respectively, according to Mysteel's survey.
The marked accumulation in stocks was common over the CNY holiday, as traders and end-users had left the market to celebrate the most important festival in China, and transaction in the physical market had gradually come to a standstill.
Chinese steel prices are expected to strengthen after the holiday as some steel producers and traders, especially those who had stocked up before the CNY holiday would tend to raise their offering prices as demand may recover gradually with end-users returning to work.
Besides, steel supply still stayed at low level with limited output at mills during the holiday, which may encourage Chinese steel suppliers to lift their sales prices, Mysteel Global noted.
Over January 27-February 2, total production of the five major steel items among the sampled steel mills came in at 8.95 million tonnes, reversing down 2.1% on week due to the increased maintenance stoppages among mills during the long holiday break.
Inventories of these five steel products at the commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's survey jumped to 21.8 million tonnes over January 28-February 6, or having posted a large increase of 25.3% from that over January 21-27 due to stagnant demand.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
Table 1 Five major steel products stocks at mills (Jan 27-Feb 6)
Product |
Volume ('000 t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
Rebar |
3,191.0 |
67.0% |
71.0% |
-5.6% |
Wire rod |
1,075.9 |
77.4% |
83.3% |
7.3% |
HR sheet |
955.5 |
17.3% |
20.3% |
-21.1% |
CR sheet |
432.1 |
19.9% |
33.2% |
29.5% |
Medium plate |
748.9 |
12.4% |
8.3% |
-8.5% |
Total |
6,403.4 |
46.9% |
50.2% |
-5.1% |
Table 2 Five major steel products stocks at traders (Jan 28-Feb 6)
Product |
Volume (million t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
Rebar |
10.12 |
33.2% |
96.2% |
-4.7% |
Wire rod |
3.98 |
37.5% |
98.2% |
2.2% |
HR sheet |
3.51 |
13.5% |
21.9% |
11.0% |
CR sheet |
2.03 |
7.9% |
11.6% |
31.8% |
Medium plate |
2.16 |
11.9% |
18.4% |
2.6% |
Total |
21.81 |
25.3% |
59.2% |
2.2% |
Note: Mysteel has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders' steel inventories since March 19 2020 to better represent the market with bigger sample sizes.
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is increased to 429 warehouses in 132 Chinese cities from the previous 215 warehouses in 35 cities.
Hot-rolled coil (HRC): Sample size is increased to 194 warehouses in 55 cities from the previous 138 warehouses in 33 cities.
Cold-rolled coil (CRC): Sample size is increased to 182 warehouses in 29 cities from the previous 134 warehouses in 26 cities.
Medium plate: Sample size is increased to 217 warehouses in 65 cities from the previous 132 warehouses in 31 cities.
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