Today marks the first week after the Spring Festival holiday. Domestic ferrous metals prices fluctuated upwards, and overall market sentiment improved. However, the Urumqi construction materials spot market was constrained by downstream demand, resulting in insufficient upward momentum for prices. Although the recovery in futures markets boosted market sentiment, the pace of resumption of work at local end-user sites was slow. Core steel-consuming sectors such as infrastructure and real estate have not yet fully resumed production. Downstream procurement was mainly driven by sporadic, immediate needs, and bulk restocking plans have not yet been initiated, leading to a quiet trading atmosphere in the market.
Although traders have mostly returned to business, they are being conservative in their pricing strategies due to limited order volumes, and are mostly adopting a wait-and-see approach to maintain stable prices. The current market presents a divergence between supply and demand, with "upstream sentiment being relatively positive but downstream demand lacking." Spot prices lack actual transaction support and are unlikely to follow the upward trend of futures prices. Local markets generally expect that the pace of resumption of work and production by enterprises will accelerate significantly after the Lantern Festival, at which time demand is expected to be released in a concentrated manner.
Overall, the market will remain on the sidelines, waiting for demand to recover, and prices are unlikely to fluctuate significantly in the short term.