This week, against the backdrop of fluctuating upward copper prices, the secondary copper industry chain showed a complex situation in which extremely tight upstream raw material supply coexisted with persistent negative margins for downstream finished products. In the secondary copper rod market, SMM data showed that the operating rate fell further to 5.45% this week, down 0.38 percentage points MoM and 25.43 percentage points YoY

US President Trump declared that, before long, the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened “with ease,” at which point the US would “take the oil.” He also claimed that the US military “has not yet begun destroying Iran’s remaining facilities” and plans to launch follow-up strikes on Iran’s bridges and power plants. In response, the Iranian military issued a statement saying that if the US dares to take action against Iran’s infrastructure, Iran will destroy “all assets and infrastructure” of the US and Israel in the Middle East.

[SMM Analysis]Weak Supply-Demand Pattern; Secondary Aluminum Prices Were Expected to Come Under Pressure and Pull Back in April

Overall, cost support remained strong, supply tightened while demand stayed stable. As tender prices became clear, aluminum fluoride prices were generally raised by around 800 yuan/mt in line with the guidance. Going forward, close attention should be paid to dynamic changes in raw material costs and adjustments in downstream procurement pace.

[SMM Nickel Flash] The average SMM price of 10-12% high-grade NPI fell WoW by 1 yuan/nickel unit to 1,082.5 yuan/nickel unit (ex-factory, tax included), while the average price of Indonesia's NPI FOB index fell WoW by $0.02/nickel unit to $136.58/nickel unit. The high-grade NPI market generally remained stable, and after the transaction center stabilized, the market entered a state of back-and-forth negotiations between upstream and downstream, with prices under pressure in the short term.

FPX Nickel Corp. has initiated the environmental assessment process for its Baptiste nickel project in British Columbia after submitting a project description accepted by both provincial and federal regulators. The proposed open-pit mine is expected to take three years to build and operate for 28 years, with processing capacity increasing from 108,000 tonnes per day in the first five years to 162,000 tonnes per day from year six onward.