As the Spring Festival approaches, China's steel winter storage market has entered a key node. However, steel traders have different views on the market outlook, so there are differences in winter storage willingness. Some steel traders believe that the current price is too high, coupled with other factors such as poor profitability, they are reluctant to buy.

Steel social inventory represented by steel rebars has rebounded compared with December 2022. Judging from the past two weeks, the recovery of steel social inventory has accelerated, surpassing the level of the same period before the Spring Festival last year.

In addition, affected by factors such as temperature and early holidays in some areas, downstream demand has weakened, and steel mills' production is less than sales, resulting in passive winter storage.

According to data, the winter storage scale of the domestic steel market in 2022 declined by at least 20-30% compared with the same period last year.

Analysts believe that the willingness of steel traders to store winter stocks is low. At present, the concentration of steel resources is increasing in 2023, and the current steel inventory is mostly concentrated in the hands of steel mills and first-level agents.