The steel market is undergoing steady supply and demand adjustments, and the industry is entering a virtuous cycle of development.

Since 2025, under the backdrop of a steady recovery in the macroeconomy, the domestic steel market has seen continuous optimization and adjustment on both the supply and demand sides, a gradual warming of the market trading atmosphere, and a generally stable industry operation, with the market developing more rationally and maturely. With the continued implementation of various pro-growth policies and the continuous release of vitality in the real economy, steel consumption scenarios have been continuously expanding, providing solid support for the industry's steady progress.

From the overall market trend, steel prices have generally shown a fluctuating and consolidating trend throughout the year, without significant unilateral price increases or decreases. At the beginning of the year, the market was in the traditional off-season for consumption, with insufficient downstream construction projects and weak willingness of manufacturing enterprises to stock up, resulting in relatively quiet overall market transactions and steel prices remaining stable at low levels. Entering the peak construction season in spring, infrastructure projects and residential supporting projects in various regions resumed work and production, leading to a concentrated release of end-user procurement demand, which significantly increased market transaction volume, and steel prices subsequently saw a phased rebound.

Entering the summer and autumn seasons, some areas experienced continuous rainy weather, which hindered the progress of outdoor construction to some extent, causing a short-term decline in demand for construction steel, and the market price subsequently saw a slight correction. Meanwhile, industrial production remained stable, with steady output in various machinery and equipment, hardware and building materials, and pipe components. This continued to drive consumption of industrial materials such as plates, profiles, and pipes, effectively offsetting market pressure from declining demand for construction materials and ensuring overall stability in the steel market.

On the supply side, the steel industry consistently adhered to capacity control requirements, rationally managing the overall production pace and flexibly adjusting production plans based on actual market demand. The industry routinely conducted equipment maintenance and environmental remediation, adjusting market supply as needed to effectively prevent oversupply and significant price declines. Simultaneously, the industry continued to accelerate product structure upgrades, increasing the proportion of high-quality and high-performance steel production while eliminating low-value-added ordinary steel production capacity, further improving the overall quality of industry development and meeting the current diversified steel demands of the market.

The demand market structure is showing increasingly significant changes. Demand for traditional construction steel remained stable, while demand for steel in emerging industries showed strong growth momentum. The continued progress of infrastructure projects related to people's livelihoods, such as urban renewal, transportation construction, and water conservancy projects, stabilized the basic consumption of construction steel. The rapid development of emerging industries such as new energy infrastructure, heavy equipment manufacturing, and ocean shipping equipment has led to a continuous increase in demand for high-quality specialty steel, becoming a new growth point for steel consumption and continuously optimizing the overall demand pattern of the industry.

Regarding inventory, the inventory levels of major domestic steel trading markets have remained within a reasonable range, with inventory reduction and replenishment rhythms closely aligned with market changes. During peak demand seasons, supplies flow rapidly to the end-user market, resulting in a steady decline in inventory; during periods of low demand, the market cautiously replenishes stocks, leading to slight fluctuations in inventory, with no large-scale stockpiling overall, and the market supply-demand balance continues to improve. Slight differences still exist between the northern and southern markets. The northern market relies on large-scale infrastructure projects for stable prices, while the southern market benefits from its dense manufacturing sector, resulting in faster circulation of industrial steel.

Upstream raw material market fluctuations have become more moderate, and the prices of various smelting raw materials have stabilized. Steel production costs have been well controlled, the overall profitability of the industry has steadily recovered, and the business environment for enterprises has continued to improve. The upstream and downstream of the industrial chain are developing more closely together, production and sales channels are constantly improving, intermediate distribution links have been significantly reduced, and material costs for the real economy have been effectively lowered.

Overall, the current development environment for the steel industry continues to improve, and the market's self-regulating capacity is constantly strengthening. Although the market still faces common challenges such as seasonal demand fluctuations and regional market differentiation, the steel industry is well-positioned for development, supported by a steady economic recovery, continuous industrial upgrading, and precise policy adjustments. Going forward, with the continued recovery of the real economy and the accelerated progress of various construction projects, the consumption potential of the steel market will be further released, and the industry will maintain a stable and positive operating trend, steadily moving towards a path of high-quality and sustainable development.