Hot-rolled coil inventories fall for 5 consecutive weeks

SHANGHAI, Mar 29 (SMM) – Prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC) will receive a boost after inventories across social warehouses and steel mills in China fell for a fifth straight week this week.

In the seventh week after the Chinese New Year holiday, overall HRC stocks declined 3.3% from a week ago to stand at 3.38 million mt as of Thursday March 28, down 5.9% from a lunar year ago, SMM data showed.

Social stocks shrank 4.7% to 2.4 million mt for the same week, standing 8% lower than the same period after CNY 2018

Limited arrivals and greater purchases, spurred by the upcoming tax cuts, lowered inventories.

Stocks across steel mills, however, inched up 0.3% this week and came in at 979,000 mt, down 0.3% on a lunar year basis.