On August 3, Wang Jianbo, Deputy Administrator of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), met with Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South Africa’s Minister of Electricity and Energy, in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on advancing energy cooperation between China and South Africa. Wang Jianbo stated that energy is a key area of bilateral cooperation, and China is willing to work with South Africa to make good use of existing intergovernmental cooperation mechanisms, as well as platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS, to strengthen cooperation and exchanges in energy planning, clean energy, power grids, and technological innovation, continuously elevating the level of China-South Africa energy cooperation. Ramokgopa noted that South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan 2025 has been formally implemented, and new energy is a key focus of South Africa’s future development. South Africa appreciates China’s comprehensive new energy industrial system and is willing to further deepen cooperation with China in energy policy, energy planning, project investment, and technology exchange. Officials from the NEA’s Department of Science and Technology, Department of Electric Power, Department of New Energy, and Department of International Cooperation attended the meeting.

[SMM Rare Earth Flash] Foreign media reported that Australia and Vietnam recently agreed to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership and will strengthen supply chain cooperation in areas such as critical minerals, semiconductors, and clean energy. The two sides expressed concern over restrictive trade measures disrupting global supply chains and signed multiple cooperation agreements. In H1 2026, Australia-Vietnam bilateral trade volume grew 22% YoY to $8.1 billion, with Australia's exports to Vietnam consisting mainly of coal, minerals, and natural gas.

Production Line Resumes Production and Launches! Inner Mongolia Qinjin New Materials Completes Stainless Steel Entire Industry Chain On August 6, good news came from the Naiman Banner Industrial Park: the stainless steel hot-rolling and pickling production line of Inner Mongolia Qinjin New Materials Group successfully completed commissioning and officially resumed production and launched, with the first batch of qualified stainless steel hot-rolled pickled coils successfully rolling off the line. The successful launch of this production line marks that the Qinjin Group's "ferroalloy—stainless steel smelting—hot rolling—annealing—pickling" integrated stainless steel entire industry chain system is fully ready for production and operation. It is reported that Inner Mongolia Qinjin New Materials Group Co., Ltd. was established in April 2017, is affiliated with Hebei Bishi Group, and is located in the Naiman Banner Nickel-based Circular Economy Industrial Park. The enterprise deeply cultivates the green and low-carbon new materials field, leveraging regional clean energy advantages, and has laid out and constructed a series of production lines including nickel-iron alloy, SiMn alloy, high-carbon ferrochrome, stainless steel smelting, hot rolling, pickling, etc., building a closed-loop, complete, green, and efficient nickel-based new materials entire industry chain production system. This key project covers a total area of nearly 10,000 mu, with an estimated total investment of 21 billion yuan, demonstrating prominent industrial scale and development potential. Upon full production, the project is expected to achieve an annual total industrial output value of 70 billion yuan, generate annual tax revenue of 3.5 billion yuan, and directly create jobs for more than 15,000 people. Leveraging the cost advantages, technology advantages, and industrial radiation advantages brought by the entire industry chain integration, it boosts the collaborative development of related industries such as stainless steel deep processing, supporting processing, logistics transportation, and equipment operation and maintenance, helping the Naiman Banner stainless steel industrial cluster to accelerate quality improvement, capacity expansion and upgrade, and enter the fast lane of high-quality development.

Recently, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center," which outlines tasks focusing on hub infrastructure, shipping services, smart transformation, and green development, further enhancing Shanghai's ability to allocate global shipping resources. According to the plan, by 2030, Shanghai will have basically established an international shipping center with globally leading hub portal capabilities, high-quality and convenient modern shipping services, outstanding smart and low-carbon innovation capabilities, and a secure and resilient governance system. The annual container throughput of Shanghai Port is expected to exceed 58 million TEUs, the combined annual passenger throughput of the two airports is targeted at 150 million, and the annual cargo and mail throughput is projected to reach approximately 4.7 million mt. Green and low-carbon transformation becomes a key focus of this plan. Shanghai will explore green development pathways for international shipping, support the pilot application of ships powered by green energy and fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, electricity, and dimethyl ether, simultaneously enhance the storage and bunkering capacity for marine LNG, methanol, and biofuels, and coordinate the arrangement of ship fuel bunkering and maritime service anchorages. For inland waterway shipping, Shanghai will promote new energy and clean energy vessels such as battery-powered and methanol-powered ships, and construct supporting facilities for fuel bunkering, charging, and battery swapping. Meanwhile, Shanghai will steadily advance the construction of green shipping corridors, strengthen port power supply assurance, and focus on increasing the shore power utilization rate for container vessels and home-port cruise ships during their port calls. The clean energy transition for ground equipment at ports and airports will be accelerated. The plan proposes promoting the use of new energy and clean energy products for newly added or upgraded non-road mobile machinery at ports and airports, thereby reducing traditional energy consumption and pollutant emissions during ground operations. In the aviation sector, Shanghai will further increase the proportion of renewable energy usage at airports, build and improve the bunkering capacity for sustainable aviation fuel, promote coordinated emission reduction in air transport and airport operations, and provide green energy support for building a leading aviation hub in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to promoting the energy structure transition, Shanghai will also advance the construction of automated terminals, smart ports, and smart airports, enhance the connectivity of shipping data, and strengthen the service capabilities in shipping insurance, maritime law, transaction settlement, ship management, and professional talent. Through hub capacity expansion, route optimization, high-end service clustering, digital and intelligent technology application, and clean energy substitution, Shanghai will drive the transformation of its international shipping center from a scale advantage to advantages in functions, services, and green competitiveness.

Recently, the first fleet of vehicles loaded with AIKO ABC high-efficiency modules successfully arrived at the Kubuqi Desert base in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, marking the official start of delivery for the first phase of the Jingneng Kubuqi "desert-Gobi-wasteland" large base, a 240 MW ABC PV project. As an important part of the cluster of national desert-Gobi-wasteland clean energy bases in Inner Mongolia, this project is not only a crucial move by Jingneng Group to implement the national large base strategy for new energy, but also another demonstration of AIKO ABC high-efficiency modules supporting the construction of "desert-Gobi-wasteland" large bases with their robust product capabilities under extreme climate conditions. The Kubuqi Desert features high surface reflectivity, large day-night temperature differences, and frequent sandstorms, posing rigorous challenges to the long-term operational reliability and power generation stability of PV modules. As the sole winning bidder, AIKO supplies all 240 MW of ABC bifacial double-glass modules for this project. Leveraging high conversion efficiency, high bifaciality, and excellent low-irradiance performance, AIKO ABC modules can fully harness the reflection gains from the desert surface, boosting power generation capacity per unit area. According to estimates, the project is expected to achieve an average annual equivalent utilization of 1,612.63 hours over its 25-year operational period. Compared with conventional modules, it can save more than 6% land area, reduce BOS costs, and achieve the optimal levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for the project.

On the morning of August 8, at the site of CGN's 540 MW PV power generation project cluster in Baoshan Longyang District, Yunnan, the first batch of Panda high-efficiency modules provided by Yingli Energy Development Co., Ltd. arrived smoothly, marking the official commencement of module delivery for the project and laying a solid foundation for orderly construction thereafter. The CGN Baoshan Longyang District 540 MW PV power generation project cluster in Yunnan is located in the areas of Yangliu Township, Bingma Township, and Wafang Township in Longyang District, Baoshan City. With elevations ranging from 900 meters to 2,550 meters and an average slope of 25° to 40°, the total installed capacity is 540 MW on the AC side and 661 MW on the DC side. It is another major project in Yunnan Province to accelerate the construction of clean energy bases and promote green and low-carbon transformation. The project cluster adopts a "grazing-solar complementary" development model, organically combining PV power generation with plateau ecological protection and local income growth to achieve efficient comprehensive utilization of land resources.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration issued the "Coal Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan", which outlines plans for coal production, transportation, and comprehensive utilization, calling for accelerating clean energy substitution in mining areas and deeply integrating green and low-carbon technologies with the coal industry. Regarding energy substitution in mining areas, the plan proposes actively promoting equipment such as electric drive drilling rigs and electric shovels in key coal production processes. In open-pit mine transportation, the plan will expand the application of electric heavy-duty trucks and hydrogen-powered mining trucks in an orderly manner, gradually replacing traditional diesel heavy-duty trucks; while underground coal mines are encouraged to promote electric trackless rubber-tyred vehicles for mining. The plan also specifies the implementation of an old boiler replacement action in mining areas, promoting electric boilers, gas oxidation heating boilers, and clean and efficient pulverized coal boilers according to local conditions to reduce coal consumption in mining areas. In mining areas where conditions permit, charging and battery swapping stations and hydrogen refueling stations will be reasonably arranged, and pilot programs for upgrading green transportation service infrastructure in mining areas will be promoted. In terms of clean energy industry integration, open-pit mining areas with development conditions can build supporting wind power, PV, and electrochemical energy storage projects. The plan supports the creation of a number of demonstrative low-carbon mining area parks by relying on key sites such as mining area electromechanical maintenance workshops, transportation and logistics centers, and coal preparation plants. In addition, the plan encourages coal-to-liquids and coal chemical projects to expand the use of green electricity, promote the substitution of green hydrogen and the synergistic application of carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies, further reduce carbon emission levels in related production processes, and facilitate the transition of the coal industry towards cleaner and lower-carbon operations.

As "full capacity" and "flooded with orders" became the truest reflections of the ESS sector in H1, a growth wave driven by both AI computing power and the energy transition is propelling the global ESS battery market to unprecedented heights. Data from the National Energy Administration shows that in H1, investment in key energy projects in China maintained positive growth despite last year's high base, with new-type energy storage up 74.3% YoY. As of end-June, completed and operational new-type energy storage installations nationwide reached 153 GW/396 GWh (153 GW/396 GWh), up 61% YoY. Compared with the end of 2025, when the figures stood at 136 GW/351 GWh (136 GW/351 GWh), this implies new installations of 17 GW/45 GWh in H1.

[Overseas renewable energy project connected to China’s electricity market for the first time] On 6 August, hydropower from Laos was transmitted to China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area via the China-Laos 500 kV interconnector. This power transmission is expected to continue until the end of October, with a total volume of approximately 600 million kilowatt-hours; the relevant electricity will simultaneously participate in trading on the Southern Regional Power Market. This move marks a continued strengthening of the mutual support capacity between China and Laos in the electricity sector and a further improvement in the optimised allocation of cross-regional clean energy.

[Overseas New Energy Project Connected to China's Electricity Market for the First Time] Lao hydropower is transmitted to China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area via the China-Laos 500 kV interconnection project. This power transmission is expected to last until the end of October, with a total volume of about 600 million kWh, and the corresponding electricity is simultaneously participating in the South China regional electricity market trading. This move marks the continued strengthening of power mutual support capabilities between China and Laos and further improvement in the optimal allocation of cross-regional clean energy.