In the January-May period this year, China’s rebar and wire rod outputs amounted to 98.471 million mt and 60.508 million mt, up 1.3 percent and down 1.5 percent year on year, respectively, compared to year-on-year declines of 1.0 percent and 3.1 percent recorded in the first four months of the year, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
In May alone, China’s rebar production totaled 24.22 million mt, up 9.1 percent year on year, 8.0 percentage points higher than the increase rate recorded in April. Wire rod production amounted to 14.273 million mt in May, up 3.8 percent year on year, against a year-on-year decline of 3.1 percent in April.
Though outputs of rebar and wire rod increased in May, good demand from downstream users contributed to the declines in inventories. According to the data issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), as of May 31 China’s rebar and wire rod inventories amounted to 6.56 million mt and 2.45 million mt, respectively, down 5.3 percent and 13.0 percent from May 20.
