The hot-rolling capacity utilization rate among these mills also remained steady during the holiday period, experiencing a slight decrease of just 0.05 percentage point to an average of 80.63%, according to the survey.
Due to subdued downstream demand for hot coils and narrow profit margins experienced by mills during the holiday, most steel producers opted to maintain regular production levels of hot coils rather than increasing output, as observed by market sources.
Consequently, inventories of HRCs both at the surveyed mills and commercial warehouses across 33 cities continued to rise over the holiday period. Stocks held by mills surged by 14.3% from February 9 to 975,800 tonnes by February 16, while those stored at warehouses increased by 14.33% to 2.91 million tonnes by the same date.
Looking ahead, it is predicted that China's HRC prices are poised to strengthen post-CNY holiday, driven by higher prices of steelmaking raw materials and supportive policies from the central government.
As of February 18, the first working day following the CNY break, the spot price of Q235 4.75mm HRC in China stood at Yuan 4,101/tonne ($570.1/t) including VAT, representing a 0.6% increase from February 9.
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