Stockpiles of flat and construction steel products at warehouses in major cities in China ended last week at approximately 8.7 million tons. This is 300,000 tons (4%) more than a week ago but down year-on-year by 1.4 million tons (-14%). Despite the rise, stockpiles are still very close to their lowest level seen since this decade.
Also of note is that the most recently released data shows that daily crude steel production at large and medium-sized mills in China averaged 2.07 million tons during January 1 - January 10. This is up by 11% from late-December and is up year-on-year by 2%. It is normal for production to drop at the end of every year and increase in early January.
Overall, it remains encouraging to us that China's steel production has stayed up on a year-on-year basis. As we have been stressing in Commodore Research's Weekly Executive Reports and Weekly China Reports, year-on-year growth in China's steel production returned last year in the middle of October. Prior to the middle of October, China's steel production last year had remained stuck in a year-on-year contraction throughout almost all of late February through early October.