China’s social stocks of steel products rose for the third straight week in the first week of 2013, said Mysteel.com, a major domestic steel information provider.
According to its statistics, stocks of major steel products, including rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel and heavy and medium plates, rose to 13.629Mt in the week ending January 4.
Never-the-less, aggregate stocks were still 863kt lower than those on January 6 last year. Based on previous patterns, stocks of steel products in China would normally edge up in the period starting from January 1st to the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 10, 2013. However, the rise in steel stocks would be limited this year as steelmakers are slow to resume full production as many continue to report losses after iron ore prices have surged since last December.
Source: China Metals e-mail chinametal@xinhua.org
