Chinese steel futures rose on Friday, with concerns over demand easing amid declining steel inventories in the world's top producer of the material. Stockpiles of rebar construction steel at traders had this week fallen 410,000 tonnes to 5.66 million tonnes by Friday, a level last seen in early February, data from Mysteel consultancy showed.
Total inventory of steel products, including rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and steel plate, dropped 6.4 percent to 11.33 million tonnes. The most-active construction rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.5 percent to 3,565 yuan ($558.14) a tonne.
Spot steel prices edged down 0.3 percent to 4265.25 yuan a tonne on Thursday, Mysteel data showed. "Steel and iron ore markets are highly-sensitive to changes in inventory. Prices could wobble as destocking momentums has not completely vanished but seasonal demand for steel products is waning," analysts at Orient Futures said in a note.
On Thursday, the European Commission opened an investigation into hot-rolled steel sheet imported from China, piling more pressure on the country's steel exports after the United States this week slapped heavy duties on Vietnamese steel originated from China.