On the supply side, the supply of the five major steel varieties last week was 8.3958 million tons, unchanged from the previous week. The production variety structure of steel in this period has shown some differentiation, mainly with a decline in the output of rebar and medium - thick plates, while the output of wire rods and hot - rolled products has increased. The total inventory of the five major steel varieties last week was 18.9784 million tons, a decrease of 0.4839 million tons from the previous week, with a decline rate of 2.5%. The total inventory of the five major varieties decreased last week, and the inventory changes of building materials and plates were consistent. Both building materials and plates showed a trend of inventory reduction. The inventory of building materials decreased by 0.3582 million tons, and that of plates decreased by 0.1257 million tons.
On the consumption side, the weekly consumption of the five major varieties last week was 8.8797 million tons. Among them, the consumption of building materials increased by 8.4% month - on - month, while the consumption of plates decreased by 0.9% month - on - month. The consumption structure of building materials and plates among the five major varieties showed some differentiation last week. Currently, both rebar and hot - rolled coils have entered the peak - season consumption verification stage. At present, with insufficient consumption elasticity in both rebar and hot - rolled coils, the supply pressure of rebar is less than that of hot - rolled coils.
Currently, the pricing of ferrous metals is still mainly determined by the raw material section. With the expected substitution of coking coal energy and the cost support of iron ore freight, the bottom support of steel prices is relatively strong. From a fundamental perspective, the current profit level of steel mills is acceptable. It is expected that the output of hot - rolled coils will still have room for further recovery this week. It is expected that in the short term, the ferrous metal sector is still in a price - rising process with several types of supply - demand contradictions. Pay attention to the pressure on the inventory reduction speed brought about by the recovery of production.
