Market demand has recovered. In March, as the domestic new coronary pneumonia epidemic was gradually controlled, downstream enterprises resumed work one after another, and demand for steel recovered. The new orders index was 38.5%, an increase of 5.8 percentage points from February. Due to the rapid spread of foreign epidemics and the reduction in external demand, the new export order index fell 15.2 percentage points from February to 27.3%, and overall demand was also affected. According to the survey of relevant institutions, the demand in the southern market has recovered well, and the demand in the northern market has not yet been released. Judging from the procurement data of terminal spirals monitored by relevant institutions in Shanghai, the average daily purchase volume of terminals in March increased significantly by 374.12% month-on-month, but the total amount still has a certain gap from the normal level.
Steel mill production tends to pick up. March, affected by the expansion of market demand, to alleviate the problem of limited logistics, post employees return rate rise and gradual completion of blast furnace steel plant refurbishment and other factors, steel production tends to rise. Production index was 39.3%, compared to February increased by 8.0 percentage points. The raw material inventory index was 44.9%, up 15.7 percentage points from February.
Finished product inventories fell. March, due to the road closures caused by the outbreak of downtime gradually returned to normal, with the gradual recovery of downstream demand, steel mills tend to smooth sales, inventory decreased significantly. In mid-March, the social stock of five major steel products in 20 cities was 20 million tons, a decrease of 210,000 tons from the previous period, a decrease of 1.0%. From the perspective of total inventory, social inventory increased by 13.18 million tons in mid-March from December last year, an increase of 193.3%, indicating that the current social inventory is still at a historically high level, and the pressure to destock is greater.
Steel prices fluctuated and rose. In early March, a number of international commodity prices decline, but demand for steel products subject to expand, driven by rising prices as a whole.
