[SS Futures Daily Review] SS Futures Strengthen Again and Test Higher Levels, Stainless Steel Spot Prices Follow the Rise, Inquiries and Trading Show Some Recovery: SMM February 4 – SS futures continued to rise sharply. Macro sentiment marginally improved, precious metals stopped falling and rebounded today, and the non-ferrous sector also strengthened. Driven by this, SS futures also moved upward, testing a high of 13,870 yuan/mt. In the spot market, supported by the strong rise in SS futures, stainless steel spot offers also increased; although trading remained generally sluggish as the Chinese New Year holiday approached, market inquiry activity showed some recovery under the recent continuous upward movement of stainless steel prices, and some pre-holiday restocking orders increased compared to earlier periods. The most-traded SS futures contract strengthened and rose. At 10:30 a.m., SS2603 was quoted at 13,860 yuan/mt, up 280 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. In Wuxi, spot premiums/discounts for 304/2B were in the range of 310-510 yuan/mt. In the spot market, the average price for 201/2B cold-rolled coil in Wuxi was 8,500 yuan/mt; the average price for 304/2B cold-rolled mill-edge coil was 14,100 yuan/mt in Wuxi and 14,050 yuan/mt in Foshan; the price for 316L/2B cold-rolled coil in Wuxi was 26,600 yuan/mt, and 26,600 yuan/mt in Foshan; the price for 316L/NO.1 hot-rolled coil in Wuxi was 25,750 yuan/mt; the price for 430/2B cold-rolled coil in both Wuxi and Foshan was 7,800 yuan/mt. As the Chinese New Year holiday approaches and risk-aversion sentiment intensifies, bulls concentrated on profit-taking, leading to a lack of upward momentum in stainless steel futures, overall showing a bias toward...

[SMM Daily Coking Coal and Coke Brief] Supply side, coking plant losses narrowed, production remained relatively stable, and coke supply saw a slight increase. However, downstream procurement pace slowed down, hindering coking plant shipments. Demand side, end-use demand for finished products remained weak with sluggish sales, and blast furnace maintenance plans at steel mills increased. Most steel mills showed low restocking willingness, primarily purchasing as needed. Overall, the coke market is expected to remain stable in the short term.

Lecong HRC inventory stood at 688,500 mt this week, up 12,700 mt WoW, an increase of 1.88%; down 21.76% YoY on a Gregorian calendar basis, and up 16.75% YoY on a lunar calendar basis.