Steel stocks in China's major trading centers fell by 1% to 14.9 million tons as of November 30, hitting the lowest level of the year. However, the pace of decline slowed compared to the previous week.
Hot rolled coil (HRC) stocks fell 110,200 tons to 3.9 million tons as of Thursday, leading the decline among the five major steel products. In contrast, rebar stocks fell by only 2,700 tons to 5.4 million tons, significantly less than the previous week's decline of 108,600 tons.
In contrast, total steel output at 184 Chinese steel mills rose for the third consecutive week in the November 23-29 period, rising by 1.2% to 109,940 tons, reaching a 1.5-month high of 9.2 million tons.
Despite the production increase, end-users' demand for long steel weakened compared to the previous week. The trade volume of construction steel products, including rebar, wire rod and bar in coils, averaged 139,523 tons/day during November 23-29, down by 14,600 tons/day or 9.4% week-on-week.
In line with the overall trend, steel stocks in 35 cities also declined at a slower pace. Stocks fell by 94,100 tons, or 1%, to 8.9 million tons as of November 30, 1.8 percentage points slower than in the previous period.
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