May 24

Accelerating Inventory Drawdowns and Supply-Demand Alignment

According to the latest mid-May data released by major industrial tracking associations on Friday, May 22, overall domestic inventories of the five main finished steel products across 21 benchmark cities totaled 9.54 million metric tons. This represents a sharp 4.6% decline compared to the previous ten-day period, outperforming the destocking pace recorded in early May.

Long products led the depletion, with wire rods and rebar dropping by 11.7% and 6.8% respectively, driven by late-spring infrastructure deployment. Meanwhile, flat products like Hot-Rolled Coil (HRC) remained highly stable with a minor 0.5% decrease, signaling consistent consumption from the automotive and high-tech manufacturing segments. Industry analysts note that this rapid destocking is vital to preventing oversupply as the southern hemisphere prepares for its seasonal wet-weather slowdown.