China's retail steel stocks fall to 11-month low

During the latest survey period, the five major finished steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate all posted on-week declines in their stocks.

Among the total, rebar stocks saw the steepest drop of 286,800 tonnes to 5.5 million tonnes, hitting the lowest so far this year, and wire rod stocks also fell to an 11-month low of 2.1 million tonnes, down by 149,200 tonnes on week.

"For now, many traders are still cautious about building up their stocks - they'd rather maintain their stocks at a reasonable level than replenish in large quantities," a Shanghai-based source said.

Meanwhile, Mysteel's survey among the 184 Chinese steel mills showed that the total output of the five steel items gained for the second week over December 9-15, up 0.2% or 21,800 tonnes on week to 9.09 million tonnes.

During the survey week, Chinese steel prices stayed largely stable, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment, edging down by just Yuan 7/tonne ($1.1/t) on week to Yuan 4,840/t including the 13% VAT.

As of December 16, inventories of these five steel products under Mysteel's smaller-scale survey among trading houses in the 35 Chinese cities also recorded a 10-week dip with their volume down 5.5% or 529,500 tonnes on week to an 11-month low of 9.1 million tonnes.