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...

[SMM Platinum and Palladium Weekly Review] This week (May 18 – May 22), the most-traded platinum futures contract PT2606 on China's GFEX opened at 490.1 yuan/gram and closed at 485 yuan/gram, down 17.4 yuan/gram or 3.46% from last week's settlement price, with a highest price of 496.4 yuan/gram and a lowest price of 474.35 yuan/gram; the most-traded palladium futures contract PD2606 opened at 340.35 yuan/gram and closed at 332.2 yuan/gram, down 13.85 yuan/gram or 4.00% from last week's settlement price, with a highest price of 343.95 yuan/gram and a lowest price of 327.65 yuan/gram. In terms of futures trading volume: the most-traded platinum contract PT2606 recorded a total weekly trading volume of 18,633 lots with a total turnover of 9.074 billion yuan and open interest of 7,283 lots, down 2,687 lots WoW. The most-traded palladium contract PD2606 recorded a total weekly trading volume of 14,380 lots with a total turnover of 4.824 billion yuan and open interest of 5,213 lots, down 1,352 lots WoW. Platinum and palladium were in the doldrums this week. Both saw significant declines at the beginning of the week, mainly due to repeated Middle East geopolitical tensions with slow progress in US-Iran negotiations, critically low global crude oil inventories driving oil prices higher, coupled with rising rate hike expectations and rising US Treasury yields, which continued to weigh on precious metals valuations. After Wednesday, as US-Iran tensions eased somewhat, falling oil prices combined with pullbacks in medium- and long-term US Treasury yields led precious metals futures to rebound slightly, but the rebound was limited and failed to recover the ground lost at the beginning of the week. US Fed: Key focus should be on the swearing-in speech to be delivered tonight. Based on Warsh's previous policy stance, if he insists on prioritizing inflation fighting and releases rate hike expectations, precious metals are expected to remain under sustained pressure in the short term. Trade and tariffs: A constructive strategic stability relationship between China and the US was established, with the 10% fentanyl tariff on China removed, the 24% punitive tariff on China extended for another 18-month suspension, and the Section 301 investigation on China's shipbuilding, logistics, and maritime sectors suspended for 18 months, reducing trade and tariff uncertainties. In the near term, key areas to watch remain changes in US-Iran dynamics, GFEX platinum and palladium registered warrants, Warsh's inaugural speech, and trial results of palladium applications in the fiberglass sector.

Futures: Overnight, the LME lead 3M contract held up well overall, with prices declining first before rising. During the Asian session, LME lead opened at $1,980/mt, briefly pulled back after a slight initial rally, then entered the European session and began to fluctuate upward. It accelerated in late trading, touching a high of $2,006.5/mt, and finally closed at $2,005/mt, posting a small bullish candlestick, up $27.5/mt or 1.39%. Overnight, the most-traded SHFE lead 2607 contract opened higher with a gap at 16,700 yuan/mt, briefly dipped to 16,670 yuan/mt in early trading, then strengthened in a fluctuating manner, touching a high of 16,745 yuan/mt. Gains narrowed slightly toward the end, finally closing at 16,740 yuan/mt, posting a small bullish candlestick, up 95 yuan/mt or 0.57%. On the macro front: Al Arabiya TV denied Iranian media reports citing it regarding a "US-Iran deal." Rubio: Establishing a strait toll station is completely unacceptable. Iran's Revolutionary Guards: 31 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours. Senior Iranian officials denied reports on keeping enriched uranium in the country. Foreign media reported: Turkey nearly cleared its US Treasury holdings to support its currency. BOE Technology Group A: As of now, the company has not yet conducted business cooperation with NVIDIA. Spot fundamentals: Yesterday and today, non-ferrous metals generally rose, and SHFE lead also rebounded strongly. Suppliers became more active in shipments, with primary lead from major producing areas quoted at premiums of 0-50 yuan/mt against SMM #1 lead average price on an ex-factory basis, with a few regions at premiums of 150-200 yuan/mt ex-factory. Meanwhile, secondary lead smelters saw improved shipment sentiment as lead prices stopped falling and rebounded, with some quotations shifting to discounts. Secondary refined lead from major producing areas was quoted at discounts of 25-0 yuan/mt against SMM #1 lead on an ex-factory basis, with a few maintaining premiums of 50 yuan/mt. Downstream enterprises generally shifted to a wait-and-see stance, especially after dip-buying in previous days, with most downstream enterprises focused on digesting inventories, and spot market transactions notably weakened. Inventory: On May 21, LME lead inventory remained flat at 286,475 mt; SMM five-region lead ingot social inventory was flat compared to the 18th. Lead price forecast for today: Looking at the market this week, some smelters in east China chose to hold back from selling and stockpile due to weak lead prices, while enterprises in other regions saw slight destocking in finished product inventories WoW. Dragged by inventory buildup in east China, overall industry inventory edged up. Lead ingot social inventory gradually pulled back after delivery ended, but the destocking pace remained slow. As some smelters resumed production, China's secondary lead production rose slightly MoM, which to some extent suppressed upside room for lead prices. On the sentiment side, concentrated short-covering yesterday drove a lead price rebound, and lead prices are expected to maintain a fluctuating trend in the short term.

Platinum prices stopped falling and rebounded slightly intraday, supported by a rebound in precious metals as concerns over US-Iran tensions eased. Ultimately, the GFEX most-traded platinum contract closed at 483.05 yuan/gram in the morning session, up 0.74%. The SGE Pt9995-GFEX PT2606 spread remained inverted, with the price difference maintained at around 5 yuan/gram. Spot side, mainstream quotations for spot platinum premiums widened slightly compared to the previous trading day, with traders' mainstream morning quotations at parity to a discount of 2 yuan/gram against GFEX PT2606. Transaction side, according to SMM, some suppliers found it difficult to close deals at parity with the GFEX most-traded platinum contract in the morning session, and later adjusted to a discount of around 2 yuan/gram, completing a small volume of transactions as futures prices declined during the morning session. Downstream enterprises negotiated for purchases, and some trading firms engaging in both spot and futures market actively inquired about platinum and palladium warrants. Overall, spot market transactions were normal today.

At the earnings briefing on May 15, Hongqiao Holdings disclosed that the company expects capital expenditure of approximately 9 billion yuan in 2026. Among this, the aluminum processing segment will focus on advancing the upgrade of supporting processing capacity in the Yunnan region, enhancing the local absorption capability of aluminum in that region, thereby further consolidating and expanding the synergistic advantages of the entire industry chain. It is worth noting that some of the projects were announced in March 2026 and have been included in the first batch of provincial-level major project list of Yunnan Province for 2026, with public disclosure already completed. Currently, the company has no new expansion plans for the aluminum processing segment.