OREANDA-NEWS.  May 18, 2012. Inventories of the five steel products held by distributors in 26 cities stood at 16.37 million tons, a reduction of 158,000 tons from the previous week. This marked the twelfth weekly decline since mid-February.

The cold rolled and medium plate stocks continued to rally while those of wire rod, rebar and hot rolled coil dropped marginally. Rebar stocks reduced by 82,000 tons from the previous week to 7.29 million tons across the nation, particularly in east China and the north of the country.

Commodities markets in Europe and the United States took turns to tumble last week. Domestic steel output remained above two million tons per day in late April. The lack of business activity and lower costs of billet and iron ore combined to add to the downward trend of steel prices.