What the data for this category looks like
Investment research data for steel trade covers factory ex-factory price ledgers, trader inventory details, sea waybills, customs import and export declarations, industry chain research reports, and more. Update rhythms vary significantly: ex-factory prices update daily, inventory ledgers update weekly, customs declarations are generated in batches, and industry research reports are released irregularly.
Document formats include structured Excel/CSV files, electronic PDF reports, scanned customs declarations, and others. Fields include product name, specification model, origin, unit price (yuan/ton), inventory quantity (ton), delivery port, and more. Some documents contain mixed-format paragraph descriptions and detailed tables.
What constraints these characteristics impose on document parsing and chunking
Structured Excel/CSV files contain large volumes of multi-row detailed data. Parsing must retain the association between each row and its corresponding fields to avoid splitting single transaction records. Ledger files with multiple worksheets require parsing all valid worksheets simultaneously. Otherwise, complete cross-quarter or cross-category data will be lost.
Scanned customs declarations and PDF research reports require OCR recognition and semantic segmentation. Otherwise, valid text content cannot be extracted. High-frequency updated price data requires incremental parsing to avoid repeated processing of full historical files. Field units across different documents need unified recognition. Otherwise, numerical misalignment will occur in subsequent investment research analysis.
How to set configurations
| Configuration Item | Recommended Setting | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
chunk_size | 800–1200 characters | Steel trade documents contain short-field transaction details and long-paragraph industry analysis. This range balances semantic completeness and retrieval granularity |
chunk_overlap | 100–150 characters | Upstream and downstream linked content in industry chains requires cross-chunk cohesion to avoid losing logical connections during retrieval |
parse_excel_max_sheets | Within 10 | Steel trade ledgers often split worksheets by quarter and category. Limiting the number controls parsing load |
enable_incremental_parse | Enabled | Steel trade price and inventory data updates frequently. Incremental parsing reduces the overhead of repeatedly processing full files |
parse_file_timeout_seconds | 300 seconds | Large inventory ledger Excel files have many rows. This duration covers the complete parsing process for conventional files |
parse_pdf_ocr_enable | Enabled as needed | Scanned customs declarations and delivery orders require OCR. Electronic PDF reports can disable OCR to improve parsing speed |
The parameter values provided on this page are conventional recommendations used to establish a starting point for configuration. Actual values are affected by material format, data volume and business rules. Specific issues require specific analysis. It is recommended to test on your own samples before finalizing settings.
Three common errors
- Phenomenon: After uploading a multi-worksheet steel trade Excel file, the data processing result is empty. Cause: The
parse_excel_enable_multi_sheetconfiguration is not enabled. Only the first worksheet is parsed, and inventory and transaction details from other worksheets are not read. - Phenomenon: After uploading a large steel trade inventory ledger, the vectorization process takes longer than expected. Cause: The
chunk_sizesetting is too small, leading to a sharp increase in the number of chunks and increased total overhead for vectorization calculations. - Phenomenon: After uploading a scanned steel trade customs declaration PDF, the parsing result has no valid business fields. Cause: The
parse_pdf_ocr_enableconfiguration is not enabled. Scanned files cannot correctly recognize text content.
How to confirm the configuration is correct
- Upload a single-worksheet steel trade Excel test file. Check if the parsed fields contain original business content to confirm that the structured parsing rule is effective.
- Upload a test ledger file containing multiple worksheets. Check if the parsing result covers the content of all worksheets to confirm that the multi-worksheet parsing configuration is working properly.
- Upload a scanned steel trade port delivery order PDF. Check if the parsed text contains information such as delivery date and product name to confirm that the OCR configuration is effective.
- Manually modify an uploaded steel trade price file. Trigger incremental parsing, then check if the corresponding content in the knowledge base is updated to confirm that the incremental parsing configuration is working properly.
Question material comes from public community discussions. Configuration values are common starting points and should be measured against your own samples. Verified on 2026-09-14.