HRC Prices Rise amid Falling Inventory

SHANGHAI, Feb 10 (SMM) - HRC futures prices continued to fluctuate upward and increased 1.84%. In terms of the spot market, the transactions improved driven by the strong futures market. The transactions in east China and south China were acceptable while that in the north China were average.

In terms of inventory, the social inventory of HRC across 69 warehouses in China surveyed by SMM this week was 4.8791 million mt, an increase of 0.62% or 30,100 mt from last week. As the daily output in February increased 29,800 mt compared with January, the supply of HRC increased slightly. But the social inventory increased only slightly, implying the steady recovery of terminal demand. The social inventory may fall next week. On the whole, although the HRC supply has increased in February, the pressure on supply and inventory will gradually weaken with the recovery of terminal demand. The prices of HRC will continue to fluctuate strongly in the short term.