[SMM Coal and Coke Shipping] Total SMM Coal Arrivals at Ports: 8.257 Million mt

At 8:30 a.m. on September 23, the fall 2026 centralized maintenance on the Wari Railway, a heavy-haul corridor for transporting coal out of Shanxi, was completed, laying a solid track foundation for the upcoming winter thermal coal supply guarantee. The Wari Railway starts from Watang Town, Xing County, Lvliang, Shanxi Province in the west and ends at Rizhao Port in Shandong Province in the east, traversing the three provinces of Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong. It is an important corridor for transporting coal from the west to the east and is also China's first heavy-haul railway built with a 30-ton axle load in a single phase. This centralized maintenance on the Wari Railway began on September 4. Over 20 days, three hours were used each day to carry out comprehensive, multi-dimensional renewal and maintenance of all facilities and equipment along the entire line. A total of 26.313 km of large-machine ballast cleaning, 255.51 km of large-machine track tamping, 120 sets of large-machine turnout tamping, and 323.35 km of large-machine rail grinding were completed, with all types of facilities and equipment receiving in-depth "checkups" and extensive upgrades. During the centralized maintenance period, China Railway Taiyuan Group invested more than 80 large machines, over 30 small machines, and a construction workforce of 1,660 people to improve operational efficiency. At the same time, refined management was applied throughout the entire centralized maintenance process, with daily dynamic optimization of train operation plans to ensure rapid resumption of operations after construction and minimize the impact of construction on transportation. It is understood that the Wari Railway's transport capacity has continued to be released. After annual freight volume exceeded 100 million mt in 2022 and 2023, freight volume reached 100.07 million mt in 2025, marking the third time annual volume surpassed 100 million mt. In the first eight months of this year, the Wari Railway completed a cumulative freight volume of 75.3299 million mt, playing a positive role in ensuring energy security.

According to SMM data, both mill stocks and social inventory of construction steel saw destocking of varying degrees this period. Total construction steel inventory stood at 7.1381 million mt, down 508,600 mt PoP, or -6.65%, with the destocking pace notably accelerating.