Data from Industrious Labs showed that US 50% tariffs on primary aluminum have significantly reduced imports, with shipments from Canada falling 25% YoY and not fully replaced by other suppliers. Total available primary aluminum in the US, including domestic production and imports, has dropped to its lowest level since tariffs were introduced in 2018, even below pandemic lows. Meanwhile, US primary aluminum output has remained around 0.7–1.0 million tones since 2017, while demand could rise by as much as 40% over the next decade. Markets believe supply risks from the Middle East, high electricity costs and long smelter expansion timelines will keep the US aluminum market tight in the near term.

Platinum prices rebounded slightly today. Macro front, central banks in multiple countries shifted toward hawkish policies, and the US April PCE price index annual rate rose significantly. As of 10:15 this morning, GFEX PT2606 closed at 467.55 yuan/gram in the morning session, up 1.16%, while the most-traded contract PT2608 closed at 473.55 yuan/gram, up 1.55%. The inverted price spread between the SGE Platinum 9995 best offer price and GFEX PT2606 remained around 15 yuan/gram. Spot market, warrant-based spot cargo suppliers generally quoted at relatively high levels, with mainstream quotations at a discount of 4 yuan/gram to parity against the PT2608 contract. Absolute prices were on the high side, and some suppliers reported that registered warrants were currently siphoning a large volume of spot cargo, leading to a premium on spot prices in the market. Transaction side, according to SMM, downstream enterprises maintained just-in-time procurement, while trading firms engaging in both spot and futures market actively inquired about platinum and palladium warrants due to current price spread opportunities between futures contracts. Overall, the platinum spot market was relatively active today.

As AI computing power demand increases, high-end electronic circuit copper foil upstream in the industry chain is undergoing unprecedented technological iteration and upgrading. To seize this market high ground, multiple A-share publicly listed firms have invested heavily in positioning themselves, and the construction of high-end copper foil represented by HVLP (Hyper Very Low Profile copper foil) and RTF (Reverse Treated Foil) is accelerating across the board.

[SMM Tungsten Daily Review: Transaction Center of Tungsten Raw Materials Rebounded Slightly, End-Use Demand Still Requires Attention Going Forward] SMM May 27: Today, the tungsten market saw moderate trading activity, with increased market inquiries. The transaction center for upstream ore and APT spot orders shifted upward, and market transaction prices gradually converged toward mainstream long-term contract prices in the industry. Some APT enterprises chose to seal their offers and hold back from selling, actively tightening market circulation. The overall market exhibited a slight rebound, but attention still needs to be paid to industry inventory clearing conditions going forward.

Under the global trend of vehicle electrification, NEV markets in China, Europe, and the US maintained high growth, driving the expansion of battery enterprises; wind power and PV installations continued to grow, with promising prospects for energy storage and filtering demand. In the downstream sectors of the electronic circuit copper foil industry, automotive electronics and server industries maintained strong growth with national support; as the 5G era arrived, a new round of development in the consumer electronics industry drove the growth of high performance flexible copper clad laminate (CCL) production. However, with the continuous release of new expanded capacity by copper foil enterprises in and outside China, competition intensified, profits faced severe challenges, and capacity consolidation, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and enhancement of product competitiveness became the core of industry development. SMM , in response to the needs of a broad range of industry users, as an independent third-party platform in the industry, and based on the premise of promoting the development of the global copper foil industry, organized and compiled copper foil industry resources in and outside China for market learning and reference. Hereby, in partnership with Suzhou Jiuheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. , we sincerely invite outstanding enterprises and industry experts to assist in the production of, and to provide your valuable suggestions, jointly making positive contributions to the development of the copper foil industry. We strive to present a more objective view of the industry status, and will invite participants from all segments of the upstream and downstream industry chain to jointly participate in the production and supervision, facilitating the promotion and distribution of the global copper foil industry distribution map throughout the entire process! (Click the link to receive for free:) Jiuheng Adhesive — A Polymer Material Supplier Dedicated to Protecting Cleanliness and Connection of High-End Films Suzhou Jiuheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (Brand: Jiuheng Adhesive) , rooted in Suzhou — known as the "Venice of the East" — since 2009, is a premium polymer material supplier deeply engaged in the adhesive products field. Adhering to the business philosophy of "Long-lasting Cooperation, Eternal Win-Win," the company takes innovative materials as its core competitiveness, focusing on supporting the development of high-end film manufacturing, building a solid cleanliness foundation for the industry, and achieving mark-free and trace-free connection effects. Jiuheng Adhesive precisely focuses on the core needs of high-end film material manufacturing, with products compatible with production scenarios for copper foil, optical film, PI film, paint protection film, anti-counterfeiting film, metal packaging, separator, backsheet, CCL, PCB, FPC, LCD, PET and other film materials. The company has built two core product series , forming a complete industry chain with integrated R&D, production, and sales: 1) Dust Removal Series: Covering adhesive dust removal paper rolls, adhesive dust removal rubber rollers, dust removal mechanisms, adhesive dust mats, adhesive dust rollers, adhesive dust paper pads and other products, directly addressing the core pain point of "micro-dust affecting high-end film quality," comprehensively protecting the production environment and product surface cleanliness; Adhesive Dust Removal Paper Roll Dust Removal Mechanism 2) Tape Series: Including PET tape, PI tape, PET double-sided tape and other products, precisely meeting the connection, fixing and other process requirements of different film materials, ensuring connection stability and mark-free, trace-free effects. Ultra-Thin Double-Sided Tape With rigorous quality control, Jiuheng Adhesive has obtained ISO9001 quality management system certification. Its products can replace multiple similar brand products, while also supporting customised services, both precisely matching clients' personalised production needs and helping clients reduce costs and improve efficiency. In the future, Jiuheng Adhesive will continue to be driven by innovation, constantly iterating product performance and quality, committed to providing better purification and connection solutions for high-end film manufacturing, and steadily advancing toward the goal of becoming a "leader in the adhesive products material industry." Contact Information: A Zhong 13814867065 Official Website: SMM Contact Bao Jinyong 13159338158 baojinyong@smm.cn

This week, ferrous metals continued to pull back, with coking coal and coke seeing the most notable correction. In the first half of the week, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on the implementation measures for capacity replacement in the steel industry, proposing that the capacity replacement ratio for ironmaking and steelmaking should be no less than 1.5:1. The further tightening of capacity replacement requirements had a longer-term impact. Meanwhile, macro markets outside China experienced significant fluctuations, and market expectations for ex-China "interest rate hikes" strengthened. In the second half of the week, data on the five major steel products were released, showing production increased somewhat while inventory continued to decline. Spot market side, traders began to show some flexibility on prices, the spot-futures price spread for hot-rolled coil continued to narrow, some spot-futures arbitrage traders mainly cut losses with shipments, and end-users continued to restock on an as-needed basis...