[SMM Daily Review: US-Iran Negotiations Kick Off, Silver Drifts Higher] SMM, August 3 – US-Iran negotiations kicked off, with risk-off sentiment intertwined with plummeting crude oil and a weakening US dollar. The market interpreted this as a net bullish factor, and silver prices rebounded. Spot trading was sluggish early this month, with both supply and demand remaining weak. Attention turns to guidance from US economic data.

[Central Bank Sends Easing Signals; Supply-Demand and Geopolitical Games Limit Aluminum Price Upside Room] Our comprehensive assessment shows that the macro front has improved recently, with the marginal constraints of interest rate hike expectations on the nonferrous metals sector continuing to ease. The proportion of liquid aluminum in China has kept rising. China’s central bank will implement accommodative monetary policies, step up counter-cyclical adjustments, and redouble efforts to expand domestic demand to steer the economy toward sustained, more favorable, and broader-based development. The persistent geopolitical risk premium in the Middle East has jointly underpinned aluminum prices, significantly boosting short-term market confidence. However, the ongoing commissioning of long-term aluminum capacity outside China, the recent softness in traditional end-use demand in China, combined with the repeated shifts in expectations for US Fed interest rate hikes and the uncertainties triggered by geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, continue to exert certain pressure on the upside room for aluminum prices.

SMM Morning Meeting Summary: Last Friday night, LME copper opened at $13,819.5/mt, touched a session high of $13,883/mt, then pulled back under pressure and dipped to $13,729.5/mt. It recouped some losses near the close and finally settled at $13,803/mt, up 0.03%. Trading volume was 16,800 lots, and open interest increased to 250,200 lots, up 3,988 lots from the previous trading day, indicating bullish additions. Last Friday night, the most-traded SHFE copper 2609 contract opened at 105,460 yuan/mt, rose to a session high of 105,780 yuan/mt, then drifted lower and dipped to 105,140 yuan/mt, and finally settled at 105,360 yuan/mt, down 0.09%.

1. Bidding Conditions This bidding project, Electromechanical Company Electric Installation Team 1, 2026 Old Residential Community Renovation Project in Tiedong District, Anshan City – Electric Engineering Wires and Cables (AGGZZBHGZHD260731307933), is initiated by the bid inviter, Ansteel Group Engineering Technology Development Co., Ltd., with self-raised funds. The project has met the conditions for public bidding, and public bidding is now conducted. 2. Project Overview and Bidding Scope 2.1 Project Name: Electromechanical Company Electric Installation Team 1, 2026 Old Residential Community Renovation Project in Tiedong District, Anshan City – Electric Engineering Wires and Cables 2.2 Conversion to Other Procurement Methods upon Bidding Failure: Not applicable 2.3 For the bidding content, scope, and scale, please refer to the attached Bill of Materials Appendix.pdf. 3. Bidder Qualification Requirements 3.1 Joint bidding is not permitted for this bidding. 3.2 The bidder shall meet the following qualification requirements: Please refer to the appendix (if any) 3.3 The bidder shall meet the following registered capital requirements: Production-type registered capital: 100 million yuan or above 3.4 The bidder shall meet the following performance requirements: One copy of scanned sales contracts and corresponding invoices for cables, 2025-2026 3.5 The bidder shall meet the following requirements for capability, finance, and others: Financial requirements: Please refer to the appendix (if any) Capability requirements: Provide the Industrial Product Production License (Cable Category) Other requirements: Please refer to the appendix (if any) 3.6 For projects subject to mandatory bidding by law, bids from dishonest persons subject to enforcement are invalid. 4. Obtaining the Bidding Documents 4.1 Any bidder who intends to participate in the bidding shall log into the Ansteel Smart Bidding Platform at http://bid.ansteel.cn to download the electronic bidding documents from 17:00, July 31, 2026 to 08:00, August 25, 2026 (Beijing time, the same hereinafter). Click to view bidding details:

[Beijing's H1 Passenger Car New L2 Assisted Driving Penetration Rate Reaches 77.5%, L3 Mass-Produced Models First to Land] At the Media Roundtable of the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, Su Guobin, Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, introduced that in H1 2026, the penetration rate of Level 2 combined assisted driving among new passenger cars in the city reached 77.5%, higher than the national average level of 70%; BAIC Arcfox Alpha S became one of the first L3-level conditional autonomous driving mass-produced car models nationwide, taking the lead in achieving legal road operation and commercial deployment of high-level autonomous driving; supported by the country’s first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, Beijing has cumulatively issued over 1,500 test licenses, with safe testing mileage exceeding 65 million kilometers. In terms of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei collaboration, Beijing is jointly building an intelligent connected NEV technology and ecology port with Tianjin and Hebei, which has attracted over 200 industry chain enterprises, with 53 signing and settling. Next, Beijing will focus on four aspects: industrialisation of high-level autonomous driving, “Dual Intelligence” 4 construction, core technology breakthroughs, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial collaboration, to build a world-class industrial cluster.

SMM Weekly Stainless Steel Futures Review — week of July 27 – July 31, 2026. A hawkish Fed hold, deepening off-season demand weakness, and the first inventory build in weeks drag the benchmark contract down RMB 135/mt in the week