SHANGHAI, Sep 12 (SMM) – Social inventories of hot-rolled coil (HRC) in China fell this week for a fifth week in a row, losing 2% from a week earlier to stand at 2.32 million mt as of Thursday September 12, showed SMM data.

Social stocks rose 8.4% from a year ago.

HRC inventories across steelmakers also fell this week, decreasing by 5% to 962,000 million mt, standing 5.1% lower than the same period last year.

Overall HRC stocks across social and in-plant warehouses in China came in at 3.29 million mt as of September 12, down 2.9% from a week ago but up 4.1% from a year ago.