Last week, the spot price of #304 stainless steel fluctuated and went down. In terms of supply, a stainless steel factory in East China shipped a large amount to the market. On the demand side, most processing enterprises have replenished raw materials before the Spring Festival. They maintained low operating rates last week as their orders did not rise as expected. It will take time for terminal demand to pick up. The short-term mismatch of supply and demand has led to a large accumulation of social inventories. The price of high-grade NPI has risen, and the NPI trading was relatively concentrated last week. Stainless mills had to offer high raw material purchase prices, but NPI prices were also pressured by the slump in SS contract prices, forcing NPI sellers to lower their offers. NPI prices are expected to remain stable in the short term. Prices for high-carbon ferrochrome also rose. Retail prices continued to rise, but downstream demand did not fully recover. Market entities are more cautious in purchasing high-priced commodities. Although downstream demand has not been as strong as expected, ferrochromium prices are still strongly supported by chrome ore prices. SMM expects that the price of ferrochrome may run smoothly in the short term. To sum up, the spot price of stainless steel rose less than expected last week, but the cost support remained strong. The inventory of stainless steel has increased, and the price of stainless steel will fall slightly this week.