Inventories rise again

摘要

These rates are, nevertheless, high - above the corresponding figures for last year. Despite this, stocks of the main categories of coil rose during May. Unsold HR wide coil tonnage was 28,000 tonnes (1.6 percent) higher, the total well above 1.8m tonnes. Stocks of CR coil rose by 41,000 tonnes to 641,000 tonnes and HDG tonnage increased by a similar amount, reaching 1.1m tonnes in all. But for booming exports these stock figures would have depressed coil prices. At around 6.7m tonnes, mill deliveries of all categories of carbon steel products during May were 257,000 tonnes higher than a year before. Excessive optimism about domestic markets prevented steelmakers from taking advantage of this high level of sales to reduce stocks. Unfortunately, higher deliveries were due entirely to booming exports. Year-on-year export shipments in May were 441,000 tonnes up - at nearly 2m tonnes - whereas domestic off-take was lower by 184,000 tonnes (3.8 percent).