Merafe Resources' latest results highlight the growing competitive challenge posed by China's expanding ferrochrome industry as South African producers seek to restore smelting capacity. Merafe's market review shows that Chinese ferrochrome output increased by more than 6% in 2025 to approximately 9.5 million mt, accounting for around 60% of global supply, while South African production declined by about 50%. The company attributed China's growth to the commissioning and higher utilization of lower-cost smelting capacity, particularly in the second half of 2025. For South Africa, the recovery of ferrochrome smelting therefore remains dependent not only on improving energy costs but also on global demand and the competitive supply environment. Merafe states that the medium- to long-term viability of its smelting operations requires materially lower energy costs together with sustained improvement in global ferrochrome and steel demand and prices. SMM sees China's expanding, lower-cost ferrochrome capacity as an important factor that South African producers will need to consider as idled capacity gradually returns.

A growing gap between local prices and what international buyers are offering has become a mounting concern among South African chrome ore traders, with industry participants warning that the market is being skewed by pricing benchmarks that do not reflect the true cost structures of reliable, large-scale operations. Several traders have told SMM that international buyers are increasingly anchoring their offers to prices set by smaller traders operating low-cost wash plants. These smaller operations have significantly lower overheads and can afford to sell at levels that bear little resemblance to the actual production and logistics costs borne by larger, more established producers. Traders stress that international buyers are treating these low-end prices as market benchmarks without distinguishing between the vastly different value propositions offered by small-scale suppliers versus major operations backed by large, secure mines. Traders representing partnerships with big South African chrome ore mines point to key value-adds that justify a premium over low-cost wash-plant supply — value-adds they feel are being systematically overlooked. These include stronger quality assurances, greater resilience in supply continuity during adverse conditions, and the ability to sign firm contracts guaranteeing fixed volumes on consistent, agreed schedules such as weekly deliveries. Moisture content, a recurring buyer concern, was highlighted as an area where established operators can offer greater control and reliability — a point given added relevance by the severe winter weather that has recently hit South Africa, with a cold front and cut-off low pressure system bringing heavy snow, disruptive rain, strong winds and freezing temperatures across parts of the country. The broader concern among South African traders is that international buyers are not adequately factoring operations costs, operational stability, supply certainty, and quality assurance into their pricing decisions. With the gap between low-cost, smaller-scale supply and premium, large-scale production widening, traders are calling for greater market awareness of the cost realities and service levels that differentiate reliable, long-term partners from spot-market players offering bargain prices without the same commitments.

SMM, August 12: Foxconn Industrial Internet’s semi-annual report posted substantial profit growth, further confirming the strong momentum of AI computing infrastructure and driving a recovery in sentiment across the high-speed interconnect industry chain. Against the backdrop of expanding computing power, high-speed copper cables have drawn attention from some market funds as a key short-range interconnect solution for AI servers. At the same time, SMM observes that the installation rush for power batteries, high prosperity in energy storage, and surging AI computing-end demand have collectively driven an ongoing climb in operating rates in the copper foil industry. As of the close on August 12, the high-speed copper cable concept rose 2.22%. Among individual stocks, Taichenguang and Hengdongguang jumped over 6%, while the biggest gainers included Xianying Technology, Ruikeda, Dingtong Technology, Far East, Changxin Bochuang, ZTT, and Zhaolong Interconnect. Market News [Shanghai: Build 100,000-card-level ultra-large intelligent computing clusters in Songjiang, Lingang, Qingpu, etc.] The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization issued the “15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Software and Information Services Industry in Shanghai.” The plan mentions creating a tiered supply system that synergizes “large clusters + small clusters + edge computing,” building 100,000-card-level ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters in Songjiang, Lingang, and Qingpu, and constructing 1,000-card-level clusters in Baoshan, Pudong, and Jiading. It guides the transformation of traditional data centers and ICT server rooms into 100-card-level edge intelligent computing centers to meet ultra-low-latency computing demands from enterprises and individuals. Focusing on industries such as finance, education, healthcare, culture and tourism, and manufacturing, the plan supports building Model as a Service (MaaS) platforms, providing industry application marketplaces, model customization and hosting, agent building, low-code development, API interfaces, computing power provision and management, and AI inference services, thereby upgrading intelligent computing cloud service capabilities. It also highlights tackling next-generation model architectures and promoting exploration of multiple technology routes based on non-Transformer architectures such as state space models, recurrent neural network variants, and liquid neural networks. Efforts will be accelerated to lay out technology systems for cutting-edge foundation models, including physical intelligence, world models, quantum intelligence, and brain-inspired intelligence. The plan further addresses breakthroughs in networking technologies for ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters, focusing on core segments such as high-performance computing chips (GPU/NPU), quantum chips (QPU), high-speed optical interconnects (CPO), high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and heterogeneous servers to boost supply capacity for intelligent computing hardware and facilitate the deep integration of proprietary chips with mainstream large models. With an emphasis on new storage retrieval and data-model collaboration, the plan aims to achieve breakthroughs in high-precision heterogeneous processing, native multimodal fusion, and dynamic value alignment, and to build automated complex reasoning covering the full life cycle of corpus data. [Foxconn Industrial Internet: H1 2026 net profit up 95.99% YoY; AI computing demand continued to surge during the reporting period] Foxconn Industrial Internet announced on August 11 that its H1 2026 revenue was 557.861 billion yuan, up 54.63% YoY. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 23.74 billion yuan, up 95.99% YoY. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring profit or loss was 22.984 billion yuan, up 96.99% YoY. Basic earnings per share was 1.2 yuan. The company plans not to distribute cash dividends, not to issue bonus shares, and not to convert capital reserve into share capital. The change in operating revenue was mainly due to the benefit from the continued surge in AI computing power demand, steady increase in market share among major clients, and strong performance of cloud service business, driving overall revenue growth. The change in net profit was mainly due to the benefit from the continued surge in AI computing power demand, with the company's main business operations achieving steady improvement in profitability. (Jin10 Data) [CoreWeave Second-Quarter Revenue Doubles, Shares Surge 12% After Hours] CoreWeave (CRWV.O) rose 12% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after reporting second-quarter revenue of $2.58 billion, up 112% YoY and surpassing Wall Street expectations, indicating that demand for AI computing power is still growing rapidly; net loss was $626 million, compared to $290 million in the same period last year; order backlog reached $104 billion, with projects under construction totaling 1.5 gigawatts of capacity. CoreWeave is accelerating the expansion of its data center business, competing with cloud computing giants such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft to capture the market for data centers equipped with chips capable of running generative AI models. However, CoreWeave has yet to achieve profitability. As of the end of the quarter, its debt on the balance sheet reached $35 billion, used to cover NVIDIA GPU and other equipment procurement costs. This quarter, Meta said it would invest an additional $21 billion in CoreWeave. Additionally, CoreWeave announced a multi-year cooperation agreement with Anthropic and received a $6 billion commitment from quantitative trading firm Jane Street. (Jin10 Data) [Axera Next-Generation High-Power AI Chip Completes Tape-Out, Supports Multi-Chip Cascading for Full-Fledged Large Model Inference on the Edge] From the earnings call of Axera's 2026 semi-annual report, it was learned that the company's next-generation high-performance, high-power AI chip has completed tape-out, with a significant increase in computing power specifications, equipped with high bandwidth, and supports two-chip or four-chip cascading, enabling high-performance inference of full-fledged large models on the edge. [Strategic Cooperation Intent Reached, Huawei to Provide Ascend Computing Equipment to Beijing Data Group] According to Beijing Data Group, on August 7, Beijing Data Group and Huawei held working talks and reached a strategic cooperation intent. Next, the two sides will focus on deepening cooperation in computing power clusters and city-level computing infrastructure construction. Beijing Data Group’s subsidiary Tongniu Information will participate in the construction of Beijing's city-level computing infrastructure, coordinating the deployment, daily operations, and computing services of the group's self-innovated computing clusters. Huawei will fully support Beijing Data Group in advancing the city-wide layout of self-innovated computing, providing advanced Ascend computing equipment, comprehensive technical solutions, and service support to jointly build a trusted city-level computing foundation in Beijing, continuously releasing the value of computing engines and offering stable, reliable computing support for the development of “Digital Intelligence Beijing.” [Nvidia Announces Partnership with Six Financial Giants to Arrange $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Financing System] Nvidia (NVDA.O) announced on the 10th local time that it has established a strategic partnership with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to create an independent computing financing platform, aiming to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital over the long term for building artificial intelligence infrastructure. Nvidia stated that the new financing platform transforms Nvidia’s computing and full-stack AI infrastructure into an investable asset class for global capital, expands access to AI factories, achieves long-term revenue tied to usage, and supports Nvidia’s ecosystem growth in hardware sales and software applications. [Tesla: Terafab Plan Launches in Texas, Targeting Over 1 Terawatt of Computing Capacity Annually] On August 6, Tesla (TSLA.O) stated that earlier this year, SpaceX and Tesla announced the launch of the “Terafab” project—the world’s largest chip manufacturing initiative, integrating logic chips, memory chips, and advanced packaging technology within a single facility. In April, Tesla broke ground on a new R&D fab at the northern campus of its Texas Gigafactory, which served as the predecessor to Terafab. And today, we officially announced that Terafab will be located in Grimes County, Texas. This facility will be an advanced semiconductor wafer fab, designed to bridge the vast gap between current global chip supply capability and future computing demand. The combined chip demand of SpaceX and Tesla is expected to exceed 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power, far surpassing the current global supply capability. We greatly appreciate our existing chip suppliers and encourage them to expand capacity where possible, but the widening supply-demand gap in the future is the core reason for the Terafab project. Terafab’s goal is to manufacture new computing capacity at unprecedented scale and speed. The project plans to build a vertically integrated factory with a manufacturing area exceeding 100 million square feet. The facility will cover the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic chips and memory chips. Concentrating these processes at a single location will facilitate rapid iteration and accelerate the deployment of new computing power. [ZTE Partners With Sky47 to Build Pakistan's Largest Intelligent Computing Data Center] Recently, the inauguration ceremony of Sky47 Karakoram-01, the largest integrated general-purpose and intelligent computing data center in Pakistan, jointly built by ZTE and Pakistan's leading cloud service provider Sky47, was held in Islamabad. As Pakistan's first customized AI-native Tier III data center, Sky47 Karakoram-01 has a total power supply capacity of 8.5 MW. The center will provide robust cloud computing, data hosting, and advanced digital service support across Pakistan, fully meeting the computing power needs of government and enterprises in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high-performance computing (HPC). Power Battery Cell Installation Rush and Robust AI Industry Chain Demand Keep Copper Foil Operating Rate Climbing According to SMM, In July, the operating rate of the copper foil industry continued to climb, supported by strong end-use demand from downstream. In the lithium battery sector, production schedules of major Chinese lithium battery companies hit another record high in July. The installation rush for power battery cells boosted production schedules, and demand for lithium battery copper foil remained positive. In the electronic circuit segment, AI industry chain-related demand remained strong; capacity continued to shift toward high-end products, and demand for electronic circuit copper foil across all specifications stayed robust. Voices From All Parties CSC Financial’s research report notes that the scaling of frontier models has entered a stage of parallel multi-path development. Anthropic Mythos 5 and Fable 5 are estimated by the industry to have 8 trillion and 5 trillion parameters respectively; Kimi K3 has a total of 2.8 trillion parameters; and ByteDance is reportedly pretraining a model with up to 10 trillion parameters. Post-training is further extended to million-token agent trajectories, thousands of tool calls, and complex tasks lasting several hours. The RSI review published on July 8 covered 1,250 papers, 74% of which were published in 2026, indicating a clear acceleration in AI R&D automation. We believe that model competition is shifting from single-parameter expansion toward coordinated evolution involving pretraining, reinforcement learning, inference-time computing, RSI, and long-term agent capabilities. Computing power demand will expand from training to inference and agent execution. We remain bullish on the Capex ecosystem of major players, domestic chips and super-nodes, computing services, Pre-AI, B-end AI applications, and local inference. Founder Securities' research report indicates that the market's oversold rebound has entered a critical phase, with divergence unfolding across tech and cyclical growth sectors. Continue to focus on allocation opportunities in three areas. First, tech stocks also require selective positioning by structure. At the index level, the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and ChiNext have rebounded about 10% from their lows, and there remains upside relative to the typical oversold rebound amplitude of major themes. The AI narrative has seen some shifts after US CSP earnings reports, with competitive capex marginally weakening; cloud business and healthy cash flow are decisive factors. Therefore, within AI, hardware and applications will become more balanced. Focus on core overseas computing power names with low crowding, as well as domestic computing power segments with high earnings visibility such as semiconductor equipment and materials; relatively undervalued AI applications and Hang Seng Tech deserve attention. Second, watch for opportunities in HALO assets, as expectations for US Fed interest rate hikes are easing. Beyond core resource-related non-ferrous metals and chemicals, oversold old and new energy, including power grids and electrical equipment, coal and petrochemicals, etc. Third, leading pharmaceutical names with improving fundamentals, low crowding, and abating headwinds. CITIC Securities' research report notes that since 2023, the rapid development of AI has driven the iterative upgrade of optical module technology. New technologies such as optical chip speed upgrades, silicon photonics integration, and CPO architecture are jointly driving the iterative upgrade of optical module testing equipment. Combined with the rapid expansion of AI computing power infrastructure, this is driving a "volume and price increase" for optical module testing equipment. Currently, international players remain relatively ahead in the 1.6T high-end market, but domestic enterprises are accelerating their catch-up, with the gap steadily narrowing. We are bullish on the long-term development of the domestic optical module industry and the trend of import substitution for high-end optical module testing equipment. China Merchants Securities, reviewing nine sharp A-share market corrections since 2015, found that sharp declines were mostly triggered by external shocks or liquidity risks, with stabilization marked by policy responses. The average rebound window after a correction is 34 trading days, with the Wind All A-Share Index rebounding by more than 19% on average, and the larger the prior decline, the greater the subsequent rebound tends to be. Sector performance exhibits "two-phase" rotation: in the first 10 trading days of a rebound, high-beta, oversold sectors such as electronics and computers lead the gains; after 20 to 60 trading days, the market shifts to themes with fundamental support, such as electrical equipment and food & beverage. For the current cycle, a two-step allocation is recommended: initially, prioritize TMT and other oversold, high-beta sectors (with focus on computing power leaders in China and overseas); after 10 to 20 trading days, return to a rebalancing of fundamentals, focusing on electrical equipment, chemical pharmaceuticals, coal, and non-bank financials. Along sector themes, key opportunities to capture are the catch-up potential in the overseas computing power price-hike chain, the elasticity of domestic computing power hardware, and gold's value as a safe-haven and rebalancing asset. The overall allocation revolves around three main themes: technology innovation, enterprises going global, and rebalancing of traditional low-valuation sectors. According to CICC research, since mid-to-late June, global AI chains experienced notable pullbacks, with South Korea—characterized by high leverage, high crowding, and high retail participation—being the most severe. Behind this were the amplifying effects of high crowding and high leverage, disturbances from macro factors (such as rising expectations for US Fed interest rate hikes and the renewed blockade of the Strait of Hormuz driving up oil prices), and market concerns over a re-emerging AI bubble (e.g., Meta renting out computing power, declining token spending). In fact, before the bubble finally burst in March 2000, the tech stock market saw at least four rounds of large-scale, prolonged corrections. The triggers for these declines are highly similar to the current adjustment: short-term setbacks in industry trends, headwinds in the macro environment, and overheated valuation sentiment. The eventual rebound in tech stocks was also due to the easing of these three pressures. Therefore, corresponding to the present, for the market to stabilize and even start a new round of increases, these three factors are needed: the digestion of high crowding and high leverage (largely achieved), the easing of expectations for US Fed interest rate hikes or the actual announcement (watch the July FOMC meeting), and more importantly, new catalysts from earnings reports and industry developments (the July-August earnings season). Recommended reading:

[China Steel Market] On August 12 China's steel export prices were mixed between gains and stability. Most flat-product export prices held flat day on day with some edging up 1 USD/tonne, and HRC transactions were at 482-485 USD/tonne; the market was relatively quiet overall, some low-priced informal offers did trade, and there is currently some port congestion at Bayuquan. Billet export FOB prices rose 1 USD/tonne, with Jiangyin port offers at 450-455 USD/tonne; offers fluctuated little and were mainly referenced to the rebar futures basis, while overseas buyers showed little urgency and were in no hurry to place orders. Rebar export offers at Tianjin port were steady with transactions at 472-477 USD/tonne; overseas enquiries were unremarkable and some South China exporters offered at 505 USD/tonne, where deals were difficult.

SMM August 12 News: Intraday, the SHFE lead 2609 contract rebounded from consolidation around 15,855 yuan/mt, touched a high of 15,925 yuan/mt, and closed at 15,905 yuan/mt, with the closing price flat compared to the previous trading day. Trading volume was 49,552 lots, and open interest decreased by 6,351 lots to 45,172 lots, as funds exited approaching delivery. The full-day candlestick closed as a doji after consecutive gains, with intraday prices shooting up then pulling back. After the rise, funds took profits and exited, the willingness to rush to buy at highs became cautious, and support strength at lows remains to be seen. Spot side, the SMM #1 lead average price rose by 25 yuan/mt. Secondary refined lead was at a discount of 100 yuan/mt to parity compared to the SMM #1 lead average price, downstream users resisted high prices, and actual transactions were thin. Scrap EV batteries followed with a rise of 50-100 yuan/mt. Hydropower batteries showed regional divergence, with quotes in south China rising and those in the north holding steady. Recycled material supply was generally tight, and traders held back from selling, supporting the cost side of secondary lead. In the short term, SHFE lead may continue to consolidate at highs. The upside was constrained by bulls taking profits, downstream caution at highs, and weak spot transactions. The downside was supported by tight scrap battery supply and suppliers holding prices firm. Key focus is on tracking actual improvements in downstream just-in-time procurement.

[Vietnam] Vietnam’s domestic steel market remained relatively stable, with construction steel prices holding at around 532 USD/tonne amid limited exchange-rate fluctuations. HRC prices stood at around 515–522 USD/tonne CFR Ho Chi Minh City, with prices remaining under pressure from subdued downstream demand and cautious buying sentiment. As weaker exports and increasing trade remedies limit overseas sales, the domestic market remains a core revenue driver, supported by expanding public investment and urbanisation. With the government holding more discussions and consultations on trade-remedy measures, Vietnam’s domestic steel market is expected to receive greater protection from low-priced imports. Measures under consideration include tighter quality requirements to ensure imported steel complies with Vietnamese standards before entering the market, which could help improve the competitiveness of domestic producers.

Today, the iron ore futures moved steadily today. The most-traded DCE I2609 contract closed at 720.5 yuan/mt, up 0.14% from the previous session. Spot prices at Qingdao Port fell by 0–2 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Traders mostly priced based on market conditions, while steel mills mainly procured on a rigid demand basis, leaving total spot volumes relatively low so far.

[Magnesium Market Trading Volume Recovered Today, Price Center Edged Slightly Up] Today, producers’ sentiment to hold prices firm was strong, and magnesium prices faced difficulty in dropping further. Affected by this, some traders entered the market to purchase in the afternoon, pushing up trading volume once again. Magnesium prices showed a climbing trend, with multiple magnesium plants closing deals at 15,900 yuan/mt. Currently, some producers are temporarily not selling at 15,900 yuan/mt.

[SMM Spot Titanium Flash: Supply-Demand Pattern Unchanged, Titanium Concentrates Weakness Continues ]SMM August 12:

The most-traded hot-rolled coil futures contract rose initially then fell back today, closing at 3,239, up 0.19% day-on-day. Supply side, the impact from hot rolling maintenance this week was 216,000 mt, down 39,900 mt WoW. Next week, the impact from hot rolling maintenance is expected to be 116,100 mt, down 99,800 mt WoW, but production remained relatively low. Demand side, the off-season saw end-users mainly trading at low prices, with market activity weaker than the previous trading day. Raw material side, hot metal essentially hit bottom and is expected to rebound slightly afterward. Combined with the approaching delivery of near-month coking coal and coke contracts, the tight spot supply will lead to stronger futures performance, and the cost support from coking coal and coke remains intact. Affected by the typhoon, inventories in some markets were destocking this week, but the sustainability is expected to be limited. Looking ahead, as sheets & plates themselves remain in the off-season, this will limit the rebound height. However, considering that cost support from below is solidified in the short term, sheets & plates are expected to consolidate on a strong note.