Hot-rolled coil social stocks fall for 3rd straight week

SHANGHAI, Nov 16 (SMM) – Hot-rolled coil (HRC) inventories across social warehouses and steelmakers in China decreased by 1.9%, or 60,000 mt, over the week ended November 15, to stand at 3.16 million mt, as the loss in social stocks exceeded the gain in in-plant stocks, SMM data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, inventories gained 5.9%, larger than the 4.9% growth recorded a week ago, reflecting a continued weak fundamentals front.

For the same week, HRC social stocks dropped 4.4%, or 101,000 mt, to 2.21 million mt, marking the third straight weekly decline. A pessimistic outlook dominated the HRC market from the start of November and this prompted traders to offload cargoes. This, together with stable downstream demand, depressed HRC social inventories.

Stocks across steelmakers came in at 950,800 mt as of Thursday November 15, up 4.5%, or 41,000 mt, from a week ago, as lenient production curbs kept HRC output at highs.