In mid-December (Dec. 11-20) this year, overall domestic inventories of the five main finished steel products in 20 cities of China totaled 7.29 million mt, down 0.31 million mt or 4.1 percent compared to early December.
In particular, as of December 20, domestic inventories of hot rolled coil (HRC), cold rolled coil (CRC), common medium plate, wire rod and rebar amounted to 1.32 million mt, 0.94 million mt, 0.87 million mt, 1.15 million mt and 3.01 million mt, down 3.6 percent, remaining stable, down 3.3 percent, down 3.4 percent and down 5.9 percent, respectively, compared to December 10.
Demand for steel in mid-December was still decent and the market witnessed increasing steel prices, rising ferrous metal futures prices and surging iron ore prices, though the downward corrections have also been seen in ferrous metal futures prices and iron ore prices this week closer to the end of the year. As previously reported by SteelOrbis, China’s steel demand in 2021 will likely rise by 1 percent to 991 million mt, following a surge by 9.6 percent in 2020, which is expected to have a positive impact on the market.
