HRC Futures Fluctuate Slightly Amid Declining Inventory and Moderate Demand

Published: May 15, 2025 17:35

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Today, the most-traded HRC futures fluctuated rangebound, closing at 3260, up 0.46%. In the spot market, most quotes remained stable during the day, with overall transaction performance being moderate. SMM released the weekly HRC supply and demand data today. This week, maintenance at some steel mills in east, north, and south China was relatively concentrated. Additionally, the daily average production schedule for hot-rolled coil at domestic steel mills declined MoM in May, leading to a significant MoM pullback in HRC production. This week, SMM's statistics showed that the social inventory of HRC in 86 warehouses (large sample) nationwide was 3.3304 million mt, down 106,100 mt MoM, a decrease of 3.09% MoM and 18.45% YoY compared to the Gregorian calendar. This week, the nationwide social inventory declined. By region, the central China market began to experience a slight inventory buildup, while the east China market saw a relatively larger decline, and inventory in other regions decreased slightly.

In the short term, with the easing of supply pressure and moderate demand resilience, inventory continues to decline and remains at a relatively low level compared to the same period in previous years. The fundamental imbalance in the HRC market is not apparent, providing support for the price floor. Considering that the reduction in tariffs has boosted market sentiment to a certain extent, it is expected that there is still some room for HRC prices to rise slightly in the shor

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