Posted on 13 Feb 2026

Retail inventories of the five major carbon steel products in warehouses across China regularly checked by Mysteel climbed for the sixth consecutive week over February 6-12, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey, as business has slowed ahead of the Chinese New Year (CNY) break.

The combined stocks of rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate held by traders and piled in commercial warehouses in the 132 cities Mysteel regularly monitors climbed by 8.6% or 1.36 million tonnes on week to reach 17.21 million tonnes as of February 12, the survey results showed.

The speed was faster by 3.4 percentage points compared with that over the previous week to February 5, when the tonnage had mounted by 5.2% or 776,500 tonnes on week to 15.85 million tonnes, as Mysteel Global reported.

Market sources attributed the sharp rise in retail steel stocks to the upcoming CNY holiday over February 15-23, during which most traders and end-users will return home to enjoy the nine-day vacation. As such, spot transactions and downstream demand this week have almost ground to a halt.

All five finished steel products recorded on-week rises in stocks, with those of rebar and wire rod mounting the most during the survey week, the results show.

Specifically, rebar inventories had climbed by 13.2% or 765,100 tonnes on week to 6.56 million tonnes as of February 12, while stocks of wire rod had jumped by 16.7% or 252,100 tonnes on week to 1.76 million tonnes as of the same day.

The lackluster downstream demand also prompted some steel mills to conduct maintenance on their production lines ahead of the break, resulting in lower production volume on week.

Over February 5-11, the combined weekly output of the five carbon steel items among the 137 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's tracking retreated by 3.2% or 258,400 tonnes on week to 7.94 million tonnes, marking the lowest since end-August 2024.

The dull demand also dampened market expectations and weighed on spot prices of finished steel products. For example, on February 11 Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at  Yuan 3,304/tonne ($479/t) including the 13% VAT, inching down by Yuan 5/t on week, while that of Q235 4.75mm HRC dropped sharper by Yuan 12/t on week to hit Yuan 3,279/t including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.

Likewise, finished steel stocks held by traders in Mysteel's smaller sample of 35 cities also rose substantially on week. The same survey showed that the tonnage had reached 10.27 million tonnes as of February 12, climbing by 9.2% or 862,600 tonnes from one week prior. This also marked the first time since November 27 last year that stocks had topped 10 million tonnes.

Source:Mysteel Global

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