The 2025 Q1 (108th overall) meeting of the People's Bank of China Monetary Policy Committee convened on March 18. The meeting analyzed the domestic and overseas economic and financial situation, noting that the current external environment has become more complex and severe, with weak global economic momentum. The economic performance of major economies has diverged, and the uncertainty regarding inflation trends and monetary policy adjustments has increased.

According to the SMM survey, as of February 12, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 85.84%, down 0.13 percentage points WoW. The blast furnace capacity utilisation rate was 87.67%, down 0.77 percentage points WoW. The daily average pig iron production of the sampled steel mills was 2.3653 million mt, down 13,800 mt WoW.

[SMM Aluminum Morning Meeting Summary: Aluminum Ingot Inventory Continues Destocking, Focus on Pre-Holiday Restocking Pace] Overnight, the most-traded SHFE aluminum 2503 contract opened at 20,270 yuan/mt, reached a high of 20,285 yuan/mt, a low of 20,205 yuan/mt, and closed at 20,265 yuan/mt, up 10 yuan/mt, an increase of 0.05%...

According to statistics, the issuance of central bank bills in the three months was 10 billion yuan generally, but this time the issuance increased by 10 billion yuan compared with the previous three-month issuance, hitting a new high in three years.

The People's Bank of China implemented the fifth Central Bank Bills Swap (CBS) operation in 2023 on Monday May 29, 2023.