Hot-rolled coil inventories rebound on week

SHANGHAI, May 31 (SMM) – Inventories of hot-rolled coil (HRC) across social warehouses and steel mills in China rose this week after two consecutive weeks of declines, fanning fears that support from low inventories will wane.

Overall HRC stocks grew 1.4%, or 41,500 mt from a week ago to stand at 2.99 million mt as of Thursday May 30, SMM data showed. This created a 1.9% year-over-year increase in inventories after decreases in a row since the Chinese New Year holiday.

Social and in-plant inventories both rebounded this week. HRC stocks across steelmakers gained 11,700 mt, or 1.3% to 920,000 million mt, down 2.7% year on year.

Stocks across social warehouses rose 29,800 mt or 1.5% this week to 2.07 million mt, standing 4.1% higher than a year ago.

The average price of HRC across the markets stood at 3,986 yuan/mt this week, down 21 yuan/mt from the previous week.