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Chinese rebar futures gained on Thursday while hot rolled coil was steady. Production cutbacks are continuing to draw down inventories, but with only a modest impact on steel prices, Kallanish notes.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange the October rebar contract closed CNY 29/tonne higher than Wednesday at CNY 3,715/t ($526/t), while the same contract for HRC closed CNY 6/t lower at CNY 3,714/t.
Steel markets were supported by a continuing drawdown in inventories. Overall rebar inventories were down -0.9% to 8.82 million tonnes this week, the second week of decline, according to a count by SMM. Inventory at mills was down -1.5% to 2.54mt, while that at traders was down -0.7% to 6.28mt.
Overall HRC inventories were also down -0.8% to 3.41mt. Of that, inventory at mills was up 0.3% to 979,400t, but inventory at traders fell -1.2% to 2.43mt.
Source: Kallanish www.kallanish.com