SHANGHAI, Nov 9 (SMM) – Hot-rolled coil (HRC) inventories across social warehouses and steelmakers in China decreased by 4.2%, or 140,000 mt, over the week ended November 8 to stand at 3.22 million mt, SMM data showed. This marked the fourth straight weekly decline for the overall HRC inventories.

On a year-on-year basis, inventories went up by 4.9%, sharply smaller than the 8.8% recorded a week ago.

For the same week, HRC social stocks dropped 5.3%, or 130,000 mt, to 2.31 million mt, compared to a decline of 0.6% in the prior week. Inventories stood 6.3% higher from the same period last year.

In-plant stocks came in at 910,000 mt as of Thursday November 8, down 1.2%, or 11,000 mt, from a week ago but up 1.6% from a year ago.