SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (SMM) – China's rebar inventories continued to accumulate at a high rate in the second week after CNY holiday as rainy weather deterred downstream demand from recovering. 

While growing stocks pressure on fundamentals, costs of raw materials will underpin steel prices and limit their downside room next week. 

Overall inventories, including social and in-plant stocks, increased to 13.14 million mt as of Thursday February 21, up 12% from a week ago and up 3% from a lunar year earlier, showed SMM data. 

In the first week after CNY, overall inventories climbed 12.1% on the week, and 2.4% on the year. 

As of Thursday February 21, inventories across steel mills stood at 3.50 million mt, up 2.1% from a week ago and up 9.1% from a lunar year ago. Social stocks rose 16.0% on the week and grew 1.0% on the year to stand at 9.63 million mt as of February 21.

For the same week, social inventories of long steel, including wire rods and rebar, in Guangzhou of Guangdong province, also extended gains by 17.86%, and stood at 1.88 million mt, SMM data showed.