1. Report Industry Investment Rating No relevant information provided. 2. Core View of the Report Last week, the five major steel products continued to accumulate inventory. The production and demand of rebar both decreased, and the inventory increase expanded. The inventory of hot-rolled coils turned to increase, with small increases in both social and factory inventories. As the terminal market continued to weaken, the fundamentals of steel products deteriorated, and prices declined under pressure, with futures falling more than spot. Steel prices are expected to be under slight pressure, and attention should be paid to the support near the previous low points [9]. 3. Summary by Directory 3.1 Market Review Last week, the five major steel products continued to accumulate inventory. The production and demand of rebar both decreased, and the inventory increase expanded. The inventory of hot-rolled coils turned to increase, with small increases in both social and factory inventories. As the terminal market continued to weaken, the fundamentals of steel products deteriorated, and prices declined under pressure, with futures falling more than spot [9]. 3.2 Steel Supply and Demand Analysis - **Supply**: Rebar weekly output was 191,680 tons (down 4.08% week-on-week, up 4.29% year-on-year), and the national hot-rolled coil weekly output was 309,160 tons (down 0.02% week-on-week, down 4.62% year-on-year). Rebar blast furnace weekly output was 162,810 tons (down 2.87% week-on-week, down 10.35% year-on-year), and rebar electric furnace weekly output was 28,870 tons (down 10.37% week-on-week, up 1212% year-on-year). The blast furnace operating rate increased slightly, while the electric furnace operating rate declined [15][17]. - **Profit**: The profits of rebar and hot-rolled coils both increased slightly. The rebar profit was +65 yuan/ton (up 14 yuan/ton week-on-week, down 35 yuan/ton year-on-year), and the hot-rolled coil profit was +2 yuan/ton (up 15 yuan/ton week-on-week, down 3 yuan/ton year-on-year) [25]. - **Demand**: The apparent consumption of rebar declined, and the demand for hot-rolled coils decreased slightly. The apparent consumption of rebar was 147,640 tons (down 16.30% week-on-week, up 143% year-on-year), the 5-day average of national building materials transactions was 3.49 tons (down 51.40% week-on-week, down 68.52% year-on-year), and the apparent consumption of hot-rolled coils was 305,540 tons (down 1.88% week-on-week, up 2.38% year-on-year) [30]. - **Inventory**: Rebar inventory increased for three consecutive weeks, with increases in both factory and social inventories. Rebar factory inventory was 153,650 tons (up 3.03% week-on-week, down 30.16% year-on-year), rebar social inventory was 365,920 tons (up 12.11% week-on-week, down 24.61% year-on-year), and rebar total inventory was 519,570 tons (up 9.26% week-on-week, down 26.34% year-on-year). The inventory of hot-rolled coils turned to increase, with small increases in both factory and social inventories. Hot-rolled coil factory inventory was 78,750 tons (up 1.94% week-on-week, down 18.77% year-on-year), hot-rolled coil social inventory was 280,450 tons (up 0.76% week-on-week, down 16.96% year-on-year), and hot-rolled coil total inventory was 359,200 tons (up 1.02% week-on-week, down 13.30% year-on-year) [35][39]. - **Downstream Industries**: In the real estate sector, the transaction volume of commercial housing and land decreased week-on-week. In the automotive sector, the production and sales of automobiles decreased both month-on-month and year-on-year in December [42][45]. 3.3 Spread Analysis The basis of rebar and hot-rolled coils widened, the 5 - 10 spread of rebar and hot-rolled coils fluctuated narrowly, the coil-rebar spread widened, and the 5 - 9 spread of coking coal and coke contracted slightly [47][52].