HRC social inventories continued to fall, but in-plant stocks rebounded

This week, ferrous metals were in the doldrums, with coking coal and coke staging a mid-week rise. At the beginning of the week, financial markets experienced sharp fluctuations, dragging down sentiment in the ferrous chain and leading to a pullback in futures. Mid-week, Indonesia's cut to coke production quotas drove coking coal and coke futures to lead the gains, though the impact was more pronounced on thermal coal, while coking coal's rise was largely sentiment-driven and short-lived. In the latter part of the week, finished products continued their seasonal inventory buildup, and support from the raw material side weakened, causing the entire ferrous chain to pull back. In the spot market, with the Chinese New Year holiday approaching, purchasing activity slowed down further, with end-users only making limited, as-needed purchases at low prices.

[SMM Aluminum Alloy Daily Review] A00 aluminum prices dropped by 200 yuan/mt from the previous trading day to 23,140 yuan/mt, while SMM ADC12 prices edged down by 50 yuan/mt to 23,550 yuan/mt. Today, secondary aluminum market quotations showed some divergence, with some enterprises choosing to hold steady and wait, while others lowered their offers by about 100 yuan/mt. Driven by the price pullback, downstream purchasing mainly focused on restocking at lower levels, and transaction activity improved slightly compared to the previous period. Overall, downstream demand continued to contract, and fundamental support for prices weakened marginally. Before the holiday, secondary aluminum alloy prices are expected to remain in the doldrums at high levels, with the price center pulling back sligh

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