According to SMM, the composite operating rate of the enamelled wire industry was 77.76% in March, up 33.91 percentage points MoM and up 3.38 percentage points YoY.

SMM expects the operating rate of the enamelled wire industry to pull back to 73.81 in April. It is understood that by month-end March, new orders in the enamelled wire industry had already pulled back, and the market showed a marked divergence in demand structure. Among them, demand in sectors such as electric power and two-wheelers remained steady and improving, providing effective support to the industry; however, demand in the home appliance segment weakened more than expected, becoming the core variable dragging down overall prosperity, and enterprises remained cautious about the sustainability of April orders.

[How Should Zinc Consumption Be Viewed Against the Backdrop of Geopolitical Conflicts?] Q1 2026 had passed, and the overall recovery in post-holiday consumption was somewhat delayed. How would consumption perform going forward?

The General Office of the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Government issued the Implementation Plan of Guangzhou for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry. It proposed focusing on advancing the R&D and promotion of intelligent hardware products such as intelligent connected vehicles, intelligent unmanned systems, whole-home intelligent terminals, intelligent wearable devices, industrial intelligent terminals, and brain-computer interfaces; promoting the application of large in-vehicle edge-side models; and supporting the development of AIoT systems featuring collaboration among home appliances, central control systems, and sensors. It also called for advancing the commercialization of embodied AI robots, supporting enterprises in independently developing core parts, and expanding the application of intelligent robots in fields such as industrial manufacturing, household services, and healthcare.

According to SMM, prices of petroleum-based basic chemical raw materials such as styrene and propylene have risen sharply recently, significantly driving up the costs of engineering plastics for home appliances such as PP and ABS. Coupled with shrinking demand from the Middle East, air-conditioner manufacturers' willingness to stockpile and produce has weakened markedly, and softer demand from the home appliance sector has directly dragged down overall demand for enamelled wire.

Recently, Haier Smart Home, leveraging its deep cultivation of artificial intelligence technologies and smart home strategy, was successfully approved to take the lead in the Shandong Province “Strategic Key Standardization Project for Critical AI Multimodal Interaction Technologies in Smart Home Appliances,” becoming the only lead enterprise in the industry in Shandong Province.

Recently, Haier Smart Home, leveraging its deep expertise in artificial intelligence technology and smart home strategy, was successfully approved to take the lead in the Shandong Province “Strategic Key Project for the Standardization of Key AI Multimodal Interaction Technologies for Smart Home Appliances,” becoming the only leading enterprise in the industry in Shandong Province. This represents Shandong Province’s strong recognition of the enterprise’s technological innovation capabilities and is also an important practical step in Haier Smart Home’s development of a platform-based, service-oriented technology ecosystem enterprise: through the standardization of AI technologies for smart home appliances, it will help drive the coordinated upgrading of smart home appliance technologies across the industry.

[SMM Morning Meeting Summary: The Tin Market Weakened After Fluctuating at Highs, Under Short-Term Pressure Amid Intertwined Bullish and Bearish Factors]

Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said at the launch ceremony of the 2026 National Home Appliances, Digital and Smart Products Consumption Season held today that since 2024, the implementation of the home appliance trade-in policy and subsidy policies for the purchase of new digital and smart products had achieved remarkable results. Driven by these policies, by the end of 2025, sales volume of the above categories exceeded 280 million units, with sales revenue exceeding 970 billion yuan, driving the market size of both home appliances and mobile phones in 2025 past 1 trillion yuan and setting a new historical high.

Supported by a relatively large volume of orders taken last week and a full production schedule, the operating rate of the enamelled wire industry increased WoW this week (March 6–March 12).....