Hot-rolled coil inventories rebound as holiday slows sales

SHANGHAI, Jan 4 (SMM) – Hot-rolled coil (HRC) stocks across social warehouses and steelmakers in China came in at 2.83 million mt as of Thursday January 3, up 2.5% from a week ago, SMM data showed.

With four weeks before the week-long Chinese New Year break, HRC inventories gained 2.1% from the same period last year.

HRC inventories extended gains over the New Year’s Day holiday as looser restrictions on production across Tangshan and Xuzhou grew supplies and as the holiday period slowed sales.

For the same period, HRC social stocks inched up 0.8% to 1.85 million mt, after declining for nine consecutive weeks. Social inventories as of January 3 stood 0.5% lower than the same weeks before the 2018 Chinese New Year, which is likely to provide some support to prices.

HRC stocks across steelmakers jumped 5.7% to 978,700 mt, up 7.5% year on year.