WEEKLY: China mills’ steel stocks grow another 6.3%
Total inventories of the five comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at the surveyed mills’ yards reached 5.8 million tonnes as of January 13, with the on-week rise reaching 6.3% compared with growth of 3.2% recorded over the prior week, the survey showed.
Steel consumption weakened further this week
due to the impact of the rise in COVID-19 cases in North China’s Hebei
province. Work on construction sites in Hebei’s Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and
Langfang cities was stopped because of the pandemic, and citizens were
requested to stay at home to curb the spread of the virus, as Mysteel Global
reported.
In parallel, steel demand in other regions in
northern China shrank too as many outdoor projects ended earlier than scheduled
because of the cold weather there, Mysteel Global noted.
Mysteel’s survey among 237 trading houses
across China showed that daily trading volume of construction steel including
rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil decreased to 148,138 tonnes/day on average over
January 7-13, plunging by 36,506 t/d or 19.8% from one week earlier, according
to Mysteel’s data.
Chinese mills’ steel output has remained
stable, however, as steelmakers so far have been little impacted by the
resurgence of COVID-19 and finished steel prices remain attractive to
them. Over January 7-13, total output of the five major items among
the surveyed steel producers reached 10.5 million tonnes, almost unchanged
from the level one week before, according to the survey.
Domestic steel prices have been persisting at relatively high levels despite the slight retreat this week. As of January 13,
the national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic
steel-market sentiment, was at Yuan 4,372/tonne ($676/t) including the 13%
VAT, lower by Yuan 50/t on week but higher by Yuan 537/t on year, according
to Mysteel’s data.
Finished steel stocks of the five major
items at traders’ warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities Mysteel checks also
climbed for the third week over January 8-14, with the slowdown in demand
lifting inventories higher by another 5.2% on week to 14.7 million tonnes, the
survey showed.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
Table 1 Five major steel products inventories at mills (Jan 7-13)
Product |
Volume ('000 t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
Rebar |
2,760.1 |
6.3% |
15.2% |
17.6% |
Wire rod |
812.8 |
13.4% |
35.7% |
25.1% |
HR sheet |
1,098.9 |
7.5% |
9.3% |
27.8% |
CR sheet |
299.3 |
0.6% |
0.5% |
-5.1% |
Medium plate |
787.6 |
0.3% |
0.3% |
20.3% |
Total |
5,758.7 |
6.3% |
13.3% |
19.3% |
Table 2 Five major steel products inventories at traders (Jan 8-14)
Product |
Volume (million t) |
WoW (%) |
MoM (%) |
YoY (%) |
Rebar |
6.27 |
6.9% |
11.8% |
- |
Wire rod |
2.12 |
8.9% |
19.6% |
- |
HR sheet |
2.97 |
3.7% |
17.9% |
- |
CR sheet |
1.47 |
0.0% |
-0.8% |
- |
Medium plate |
1.88 |
2.1% |
9.6% |
- |
Total |
14.71 |
5.2% |
12.3% |
- |
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, and the on-year comparisons will be filled up when feasible.
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.
The old set of data is still available in the separate databank service until March 11 2021.
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