Gains in hot-rolled coil inventories slow on week

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (SMM) – Inventories of hot-rolled coil (HRC) across social warehouses and steelmakers in China expanded 4.4% from a week ago to stand at 3.79 million mt as of Thursday February 21, down 6.7% from the same period last lunar year, showed an SMM survey.

Overall HRC inventories gained 21.5% between January 31 and February 14, or the last Thursday before and the first Thursday after the Lunar New Year break.

The gains in HRC inventories slowed as consumption began to recover.

HRC stocks in social warehouses grew 5.3% this week and came in at 2.73 million mt as of February 21. This stood 5.5% higher than the same period last lunar year.

HRC inventories across steel mills stood at 1.06 million mt as of February 21, up 2.1% from a week ago but down 9.5% from a lunar year ago.

The in-plant inventories were down from 1.08 million mt recorded on Tuesday February 19 as mills began to make deliveries on Wednesday.

SMM learned that orders that entered steel mills were brisk this month.