What the Data for This Category Looks Like
Data sources for industrial metal due diligence reports include industry statistical institutions, public spot trading data, and public announcements from upstream and downstream enterprises. Update frequencies cover multiple dimensions: spot prices are updated per trading day, supply and demand reports are released monthly or quarterly, and inventory data is updated weekly. Most documents are in PDF, Excel, or Word formats. Their structures include structured market quote tables, supply and demand balance tables, and origin and production capacity details. Fields include product grade, trading unit, price range, total inventory, and others. Common units are yuan/ton, ten thousand tons, and percentage.
Constraints Imposed on Document Parsing and Chunking
Multi-format structured documents require parsing logic to adapt to table structures of different file types. Merged cells and nested tables can cause content misalignment after parsing. Frequently updated data requires distinguishing historical and latest content during chunking to avoid data confusion. Diverse unit types require retaining the binding relationship between values and units during parsing; otherwise, subsequent retrieval matching will be affected. Continuous long-document data, such as monthly market quote sequences, requires retaining contextual associations to avoid losing complete logic after splitting.
Configuration Settings
| Configuration Item | Recommended Value | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
chunk_size | 800–1200 characters | Industrial metal due diligence reports often contain long tables and continuous data. This length balances contextual association and retrieval granularity |
chunk_overlap | 100–150 characters | Prevents contextual breaks caused by splitting continuous data such as supply and demand balance sheets and market quote sequences |
parse_table_strategy | structured_table_only | Most industrial metal documents use structured tables. Prioritize retaining the original table structure instead of converting to plain text |
enable_unit_keep | Enabled | Retain the binding relationship between units and corresponding values for prices, grades, and inventory to avoid separation of units and values during retrieval |
table_merge_cell_handle | expand_to_rows | Process merged cells in Excel or PDF documents. Expand merged content into independent rows to avoid data omission |
max_parse_file_size | 500 MB | Adapt to the maximum single-file size of industrial metal quarterly and semi-annual due diligence reports |
The parameter values provided on this page are common recommendations used as a starting point for configuration. Actual values are affected by material form, data volume, and business rules. Specific issues require targeted analysis. It is recommended to test on your own samples before finalizing settings.
Three Common Misconfigurations
- Phenomenon: Parsed tables are fully displayed in the knowledge base preview, but only scattered text is returned in search results without table structure. Cause:
parse_table_strategyis not configured to use structured table retention mode. Only plain text content of the table is extracted, and the original table layout is not retained. - Phenomenon: Search fails to prioritize recalling core supply and demand data, and instead preferentially matches auxiliary note content. Cause: No clear delimiter rules are set during chunking. Core data and auxiliary content are merged into the same chunk, making priority differentiation impossible.
- Phenomenon: Documents chunked locally using a vector model have retrieval recall results that deviate from local tests after being uploaded to the server. Cause: Chunking boundary logic varies across vector models. The contextual boundaries of local chunking do not match the expectations of the server-side model.
How to Verify Correct Configuration
- Upload an industrial metal due diligence document containing structured market quote tables. Check if the table in the knowledge base preview retains the original row and column layout.
- Search for keywords that include specific price values and units. Confirm that the returned results do not separate values and their corresponding units.
- Compare local test and server-side chunking results to confirm that chunking boundaries match the preset configuration.
- Upload industrial metal documents in different formats. Verify that parsed chunked content has no missing fields or units.
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.