Inventories of rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses stood at 8.35 million mt as of January 28, up 15.7% from a week ago.

inventories at Chinese steelmakers rose 205,200 mt on the week and stood at 3.3 million mt. Inventories at social warehouses rose 928,200 mt on the week and stood at 5.06 million mt, up 22.48% from a week ago and 27.1% higher from a year ago.

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports decreased 520,000 wmt from January 22 to 8.09 million wmt as of January 29, showed SMM data. In Ni content, the stocks fell 4,200 mt to 63,800 mt.

Aluminium billet stocks across the five major consumption areas- Foshan, Wuxi, Huzhou, Changzhou and Nanchang — in China built up 16,400 mt from a week ago to 100,700 mt as of January 28. Stocks in Foshan increased the most, reaching 10,100 mt, followed by Wuxi (increased 3,100 mt).

Average operating rate of blast furnaces (BFs) at Chinese steel mills dipped 0.7 percentage point from the previous week to 86.8% as of January 28. Some steel mills had to reduce production this week as transport of raw materials was affected by lockdown measures.

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou averaged 46.2% in the week, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous week, an SMM survey showed. The average operating rates remained unchanged on the week at 47.1%, 70.2% and 33.3% in Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu respectively.

 

Source: hellenicshippingnews