[SMM Building Materials Weekly Balance] Demand Still Released Before the Holiday, but Destocking Slope Slowed Down

Supply side, blast furnace steel mills remain in a phase of overall losses, but some producers have resumed production on rolling lines in stages to meet pre-holiday restocking by agents and direct supply demand, leading to a slight increase in production. Meanwhile, due to compressed margins at EAF steel mills in east China and difficulties in scrap collection for some producers, there have been intermittent shutdowns or reduced operating hours, causing electric furnace production to edge down. Demand side, some end-user projects still released stockpiling demand before the holiday, concentrated in purchases early in the week, while demand contracted notably on the final pre-holiday day, with overall apparent demand pulling back WoW. According to SMM statistics, steel mill inventory and social inventory of construction materials continued to destock rapidly this period, with total construction material inventory at 6.742 million mt, down 396,100 mt WoW, or -5.55% WoW, with the pace of destocking slowing down WoW.