About Steel: Last Tuesday to Thursday (January 2-4), domestic steel prices slightly increased, with Steel Home's steel benchmark price index (SHCNSI) at 4515 yuan/ton, an increase of 39 yuan/ton from last Friday. Among them, the price index of rebar was 4061 yuan/ton, an increase of 22 yuan/ton; The price index of medium and heavy plates was 4145 yuan/ton, an increase of 19 yuan/ton; The price index of hot-rolled coils was 4201 yuan/ton, an increase of 26 yuan/ton; The price index of cold-rolled coils was 4873 yuan/ton, up 9 yuan/ton, and the price index of structural steel was 4413 yuan/ton, up 20 yuan/ton. In terms of stainless steel, SteelHome's stainless steel price index was 12726 yuan/ton, an increase of 56 yuan/ton compared to last Friday. Among them, the 300 series stainless steel price index was 16785 yuan/ton, the 400 series stainless steel price index was 8143 yuan/ton, and the 200 series stainless steel price index was 9525 yuan/ton, respectively, an increase of 70 yuan/ton, 56 yuan/ton, and 40 yuan/ton compared to last Friday.

About raw materials: Last week, SteelHome’ s price indexes of raw materials increased mainly. As of December 19th, SteelHome’s price index of imported iron ore 62%

About Ferrous Futures: Futures price changes from Last Tuesday to Thursday: HRC increased by 0.8%, rebar increased by 1.1%, stainless steel increased by 1.5%, iron ore increased by 3.78%, coking coal slightly decreased by 0.11%, coke increased by 0.38%, silicon-manganese increased by 0.56%, and ferro-silicon increased by 0.27%.

Last Tuesday to Thursday, the domestic metallurgical coke market remained stable, with some markets experiencing a decline in coking coal and coal prices.

On January 5th, SteelHome’s imported iron ore 62% price index was $143.38 per ton, an increase of $2.72 per ton. The purchasing enthusiasm of steel mills in Tangshan area increased, and the overall level of port iron ore inventory remained low. On January 5th, SteelHome’s price index of ordinary carbon billet was 3757 yuan/ton, an increase of 35 yuan/ton. Most steel billet manufacturers are currently in a loss state and are unwilling to sell at low prices. On January 5th, Steel Home's HMS price index was 3088 yuan/ton, an increase of 36 yuan/ton from the previous week.

About Inventory and Transaction: The total inventory of five major types of steel in China last week was 16.136 million tons, an increase 0.81% compared to the previous week. Among them, the market inventory increased by 3.6%, and steel mill inventory increased by 2.01%.

Last week, the daily average trading volume of rebar was 60980 tons, an increase of 3.5% compared to last week; The daily average trading volume of medium and heavy plate was 20631 tons, an increase of 6.4% compared to last week; The daily average trading volume of HRC was 19293 tons, a decrease of 3.2% from last week.

About Production: Last week, the operating rate of domestic steel mills' blast furnaces was 84.86%, a decrease of 0.64 percentage points, while the operating rate of electric arc furnaces was 55.68%, a decrease of 0.48 percentage points.