This week, the rare earth market outside China showed a divergent pattern of “cerium up, the rest down.” Driven by price increases in China and rising ocean freight rates, cerium oxide FOB and CIF prices rose by $55/mt and $60/mt, respectively, while FOB offers for mainstream magnetic material raw materials such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium were generally lowered by $3-19.5/kg due to lower prices in China and tight supply caused by export controls. Although limited trading volumes supported premiums in markets outside China, expectations of an industrial slowdown in Europe triggered by the Middle East situation may suppress subsequent demand. On industry developments, Lynas’ Malaysia plant started samarium oxide production ahead of schedule, consolidating its position as the only commercial heavy rare earth separator outside China and advancing its 2030 strategy. In Australia, Terrain discovered high-grade magnetic rare earth ore intervals during drilling at its Western Australia project, highlighting significant resource potential.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Rare Earth Prices Pulled Back Significantly, Downstream Inquiries and Procurement Decreased] Affected by fluctuations in futures prices, confidence in the Pr-Nd oxide market dropped sharply. Traders proactively sold off cargoes at low prices, causing transaction prices in the Pr-Nd oxide market to fall rapidly. As of today, Pr-Nd oxide prices had already pulled back to 690,000-700,000 yuan/mt.

Russia’s Solikamsk Magnesium Works recently launched industrialised production of magnesium alloys containing rare earth elements such as neodymium, cerium, and lanthanum. The products combine lightweight properties with high strength and are mainly targeted at sectors including aerospace and automotive manufacturing. The plant accounts for 100% of Russia’s rare earth compound production and 75% of its magnesium capacity, and this capacity expansion further consolidates its position in the strategic metals sector. Meanwhile, the “magnesium-based hydrogen slurry” technology developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute has sparked controversy. Independent analysis indicated that the technology’s overall system efficiency is only about 10, its energy density is comparable to that of lithium batteries, its cost is far higher than expectations, and its recycling chain has yet to form a closed loop. It is only suitable for demonstration scenarios at the hundred-watt level and is unlikely to achieve commercial application. The two pieces of news reflect the different technological pathways and industrialisation prospects of magnesium-based materials in high-end manufacturing and energy storage.

It is worth noting that the overall overseas ternary cathode demand outlook for 2026 remains subdued. The U.S. market has been sluggish since the fourth quarter of last year, prompting many overseas manufacturers to place their hopes on the European market.

[SMM Chrome Weekly Review: Steel Tender Prices Rose, and the Market Remained Temporarily Stable] March 20, 2026 News: Quotes for chrome ore and ferrochrome were unchanged for the time being...

According to the latest release from the General Administration of Customs, SMM statistics showed that China’s total manganese ore imports in February 2026 were 2.3064 million mt, down 33.00% MoM and up 3.24% YoY. Cumulative imports in January-February were 5.749 million mt, up 46.29% YoY from the same period last year. February imports from Australia were 413,100 mt, down 31.35% MoM; South Africa 990,400 mt, down 49.55% MoM; Gabon 375,100 mt, up 13.01% MoM; Ghana 270,400 mt, up 1.78% MoM; Brazil 99,700 mt, down 17.87% MoM; and Myanmar 49,900 mt, up 14.8% MoM.

SMM, March 20: The SMM weekly operating rate of secondary lead across four provinces stood at 39.57% from March 13 to March 19, 2026, up 10.42 percentage points WoW. Production at enterprises in Anhui was relatively stable, while the resumption progress at other smelters was slow; raw material inventory among enterprises in Henan diverged, with mixed changes in operating rates; enterprises in Jiangsu, affected by losses, showed intentions to cut or suspend production; and a large secondary lead smelter in Inner Mongolia resumed production, driving a sharp increase in the operating rate this week. Next week, enterprises resuming production will continue to release capacity, and market attention should focus on whether loss-making enterprises will implement production suspensions in the secondary lead operating rate. 》Subscribe to View Historical SMM Metal Spot Prices

Copper prices fluctuated downward this week. At the start of the week, expectations for US Fed interest rate cuts continued to cool, and the market even began to price in possible rate hikes, weakening expectations for macro liquidity and putting copper prices under pressure, causing them to pull back. Mid-week, after the US Fed kept rates unchanged, the US PPI annual rate rose more than expected to 3.4, further weighing on market expectations for interest rate cuts within the year. According to market sources, traders no longer priced in any US Fed interest rate cuts this year, and bets on easing expectations faded further. The continued escalation in US-Iran tensions fueled safe-haven sentiment, while elevated oil prices intensified concerns over inflation and economic weakness. The stronger US dollar index also suppressed copper prices. In terms of fund positioning, the futures were mainly marked by long liquidation, with risk-off sentiment among funds rising and willingness to take profits at high levels increasing. Overall, macro headwinds dominated market sentiment, and copper prices came under pressure and corrected lower. Fundamentals side, copper concentrates TC continued to pull back. This week, the imported copper concentrates index was reported at -$67.32/mt, further lower WoW and at a historical low, with smelting pressure continuing to mount. In copper cathode, the continued downward shift in the center of copper prices significantly stimulated restocking demand from downstream enterprises, and spot inventory showed a rapid destocking trend. The import window remained open, but actual subsequent inflows of imported cargo still need further observation. According to SMM, orders at most downstream enterprises surged, with generally strong enthusiasm for buying the dip. Some sectors were notably boosted by the pullback in copper prices, and order performance improved. Looking ahead to next week, the macro logic remains unchanged. Cooling expectations for US Fed interest rate cuts, intertwined with geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, will continue to weigh on copper prices. However, fundamental support for copper prices is gradually strengthening. Faster destocking and stronger downstream restocking willingness will limit downside room, and copper prices are expected to continue fluctuating near the range in the short term. LME copper is expected to fluctuate between $11,700/mt and $12,500/mt, and SHFE copper between 91,000 yuan/mt and 97,000 yuan/mt. Spot side, as downstream restocking continues and inventory is drawn down, spot premiums are expected to continue to recover, but inflows of imported cargo and suppliers selling on strength will cap upside room. Spot prices against the SHFE copper 2604 contract are expected to range from a discount of 120 yuan/mt to a premium of 20 yuan/mt.

According to the investor relations activity record announced by Jintian Holdings on March 19 (March 10-12, 2026): 1. The Company’s 2025 earnings guidance and the reasons for the projected increase. Jintian Holdings replied: In 2025, the company implemented its “dual upgrade in products and clients” strategy, with product applications continuing to deepen in high-end fields; it stepped up expansion among clients outside China, and sales in markets outside China continued to grow; meanwhile, through digitalization initiatives, it improved operational and management efficiency, and the gross margin and profitability of its products improved YoY. The company expected net profit attributable to owners of the parent for 2025 to reach 700 million yuan to 800 million yuan, up 51.50%-73.14% YoY from the same period last year. 2. Progress of the company’s share repurchase. Jintian Holdings replied: From February 3, 2026 to February 28, 2026, the company had cumulatively repurchased 4,942,200 shares through centralized bidding, accounting for 0.29% of its current total share capital, with total funds paid of 56,676,944 yuan (excluding transaction costs). 3. The company’s industry position and competitive advantages. Jintian Holdings replied: The company had focused on the copper processing industry for 39 years and was one of the largest enterprises in China by scale and with the most complete industry chain. In 2024, the company achieved total production of 1.9162 million mt of copper and copper alloy materials, and its total production of copper semis ranked first globally. The company offered a wide range of copper products and could meet clients’ one-stop procurement needs for multiple categories of copper semis, including rods, tubes, plates and strips, and wires. Its copper products had been widely used in NEV, clean energy, communications technology, electrical power and equipment, chips and semiconductors, and other fields. At present, the company had developed a profound cultural heritage and outstanding organizational capability, with a significant market scale position and a global industrial footprint; it possessed leading manufacturing and R&D capabilities; it had built a specialized product matrix and formed a stable base of top-tier industry clients; and it had also established forward-looking green recycling technology barriers, laying a solid foundation for becoming a world-class base for copper products and advanced materials. 4. The capacity and business performance of the company’s rare earth permanent magnet products. Jintian Holdings replied: The company had entered the magnetic materials business in 2001. After more than 20 years of dedicated development, it had become one of the enterprises in China’s peer industry with relatively advanced technology and a well-developed product system. At present, the company had two magnetic material production sites in Ningbo and Baotou. Phase I of the Baotou site had commenced production, and the company’s annual capacity of rare earth permanent magnet materials had increased to 9,000 mt. The company was actively advancing the Phase II project at the Baotou site to further increase capacity to 13,000 mt. At the same time, through its newly established German subsidiary, the company accelerated its international expansion and increased its share in overseas markets. The company was among the first batch of enterprises to obtain a general export license for rare earth permanent magnet products, and it has continued to strengthen and advance export-related business. The company’s rare earth permanent magnet products are widely used in multiple high-end fields, including NEVs, wind power generation, high-efficiency energy-saving motors, robotics, consumer electronics, and medical devices. 5. The Company’s Business Development in the Chip Computing Power Sector. Jintian Co., Ltd. responded: With its outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity, copper has become a core material for advanced AI industry chip interconnects and heat dissipation in computing power facilities, and the transition of copper-based materials toward high value-added products has further accelerated. The company has a solid client base and technical reserves in the chip computing power sector, and it is also among the first companies globally to achieve large-scale supply of copper-based materials to leading enterprises in the above fields. Among them, the company’s high-precision special-shaped oxygen-free copper busbar products have been applied in multiple top-tier GPU cooling solutions of several global first-tier thermal module enterprises. Products independently developed by the company, such as copper heat pipes and liquid-cooling copper pipe & tube, have been supplied in batches for computing power server products of multiple top-tier enterprises. The company will closely monitor and follow market demand in the chip computing power sector, further improve its product portfolio, and enhance the competitive advantages of its products. 6. The Company’s Position Advantages and Business Achievements in the Secondary Copper Sector. Jintian Co., Ltd. responded: The company has continuously innovated new pathways for the green development of copper-based high-tech materials and has become one of the enterprises in China with the largest utilization of secondary copper and the highest comprehensive utilization rate. It is also one of the few companies in the global industry to achieve a closed-loop entire industry chain covering secondary copper recycling, purification, and deep processing. The company’s independently developed low-carbon secondary copper products significantly reduce carbon emissions while ensuring product performance, enabling it to provide downstream clients across the industry chain with high-quality, comprehensive one-stop green solutions for copper semis. In H1 2025, sales of the company’s green, high-end, low-carbon secondary copper products increased 61% YoY. Its product matrix now covers copper strip, copper wire, magnet wire, copper pipe & tube, copper busbar, copper billet, and more, and has been applied in fields such as high-end consumer electronics, the automotive industry, and electrical equipment. Specific applications include laptop cooling modules, mobile phone vibration motors, NEV power battery connections, and AC/DC power supplies. The products have achieved mass production in the products of multiple world-renowned clients, forming a new performance growth driver represented by “green low-carbon secondary copper products.” An investor asked on the investor interaction platform: Have the company’s copper billet products now become core supplies for top-tier enterprises such as DJI Innovation or EHang Intelligent?With the boom in the low-altitude economy’s payload flight market, have the company’s PEEK materials or high-strength copper alloys developed for drone motor bearings and airframe structural components seen explosive growth in orders? On March 19, Jintian Co., Ltd. stated on the investor interaction platform that the company had a solid client base and technical reserves in the low-altitude economy field. Among its products, high-precision free-cutting copper billet, with excellent properties such as high strength and wear resistance, had already been applied in airborne structural components of low-altitude aircraft. The company’s PEEK material products provide high-voltage drive stability technical solutions for the low-altitude economy’s payload flight market, and it had already carried out R&D cooperation with multiple top-tier enterprises in China. The company will closely monitor and follow market demand in the low-altitude economy field, further improve its product portfolio, and enhance its product competitive advantages. For specific related information, please refer to periodic reports. An investor asked on the investor interaction platform: Hello, Board Secretary. Recently, LME copper prices have risen sharply. Under the company’s strictly implemented hedging strategy, did this generate positive gains from closing positions during the reporting period, or was there a slight loss? Approximately how much was the amount? In addition, as the company’s revenue scale expanded, how well did net operating cash flow match net profit in 2025? Was there any cash flow strain caused by prepayments for raw material procurement? On March 19, Jintian Co., Ltd. stated on the investor interaction platform that the company’s copper processing products adopted a pricing model of “raw material prices + processing fee” and carried out hedging operations in strict accordance with the Hedging Management System to reduce the impact of raw material price fluctuations on the company’s net profit. At present, fluctuations in copper prices had a relatively small impact on the company’s operating performance. For specific related information, please refer to periodic reports. On March 18, when responding to investor questions on the interaction platform, Jintian Co., Ltd. stated that the company had continued to expand its technological leadership in high-voltage electromagnetic flat wire and had further advanced cooperation on new energy high-voltage electromagnetic flat wire projects with world-class OEMs and motor suppliers. As of H1 2025, the company had secured 23 new nominations for its 800V high-voltage platform for new energy drive motors, and had already achieved bulk supply for multiple projects, with the shipment share of high-voltage flat wire continuing to increase. For specific related information, please refer to periodic reports. On March 17, when responding to investor questions on the interaction platform, Jintian Co., Ltd. stated that, with its outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity, copper had become a core material for chip interconnection in the advanced AI industry and heat dissipation in computing power facilities. The company had a solid client base and technical reserves in the AI computing power field. Among its products, the company’s high-precision shaped oxygen-free copper busbar products had already been applied in multiple top-tier GPU cooling solutions of several first-tier thermal module enterprises worldwide. The company will closely monitor and follow market demand in the AI computing power sector, further improve its product portfolio, and enhance its competitive edge. For specific information, please refer to the periodic reports. On March 17, Jintian Co., Ltd. said in response to investor questions on an interactive platform that the company continued to expand its technological leadership in the high-voltage electromagnetic flat wire industry, with both the number of designated projects on high-voltage platforms and shipment volume continuing to grow. Among them, the company's 1,000V flat wire products for drive motors have become an industry benchmark as supporting materials for "megawatt flash charging" technology in the NEV sector, while client-related certification for 1,200V flat wire for drive motors was also progressing in an orderly manner. In addition, the company had a solid client base and sound technical reserves in the chip and semiconductor sector. The company will closely monitor and follow market demand in the chip and semiconductor sector, further improve its product portfolio, and enhance its competitive edge. For specific information, please refer to the periodic reports. On March 17, Jintian Co., Ltd. said in response to investor questions on an interactive platform that the company remained committed to advancing its internationalization strategy, and construction of its newly built Thailand production site was progressing smoothly. The company's copper semis products exported outside China had an overall relatively high gross margin. In H1 2025, revenue from its principal operations outside China was up 21.86% YoY and continued to maintain a solid growth trend. The steady growth of business outside China laid a solid foundation for the company to deepen the upgrading of its global product and client mix. For specific information, please refer to the periodic reports. Jintian Co., Ltd.'s 2025 earnings forecast showed that, based on preliminary estimates by its finance department, the company expected net profit attributable to owners of the parent for 2025 to reach 700 million to 800 million yuan, representing an increase of 237.9574 million to 337.9574 million yuan from the same period last year (statutorily disclosed data), up 51.50% to 73.14% YoY. Net profit attributable to owners of the parent excluding non-recurring gains and losses for 2025 was expected to reach 440 million to 528 million yuan, representing an increase of 101.4004 million to 189.4004 million yuan from the same period last year (statutorily disclosed data), up 29.95% to 55.94% YoY. Regarding the main reasons for the expected increase in results for the period, Jintian Co., Ltd. stated: In 2025, the company implemented its "dual upgrade of products and clients" strategy, with product applications in high-end fields continuing to deepen; it stepped up expansion among clients outside China, and sales in markets outside China continued to grow; meanwhile, through digitalization initiatives, it improved operating and management efficiency, and its product gross margin level and profitability improved YoY. On January 23, Jintian Co., Ltd. said in response to investor questions on an interactive platform that Phase I of its Baotou base had been put into operation, and the annual capacity of rare earth permanent magnets had been increased to 9,000 mt. The company is currently actively advancing Phase II of the Baotou base project, with the aim of further increasing capacity to 13,000 mt. The company has a solid client base and technical reserves in the robotics field, and some rare earth permanent magnets have already been applied in the robotics sector. The company will closely monitor and follow market demand in the robotics field, further improve its product portfolio, and enhance its product competitiveness. A performance preview commentary on Jintian Co., Ltd. for 2025 released by Aijian Securities showed that the share repurchase demonstrated confidence in long-term development, while capital structure optimization was advancing steadily. The company’s high-end copper-based materials were being introduced at an accelerated pace to clients outside China in the computing power cooling sector, with sales rising rapidly and profitability improving significantly. 1) In terms of profitability, processing fees for copper busbar used in computing power are relatively high, and product mix upgrades are expected to continue lifting the company’s gross margin level; 2) In terms of shipment progress, in H1 2025, sales of the company’s copper busbar products in the cooling sector increased 72% YoY, and its high-precision profiled oxygen-free copper busbar has entered GPU cooling solutions of multiple global first-tier cooling module enterprises. The company’s copper heat pipes, liquid-cooling copper pipe & tube, and other products have also achieved bulk supply in computing servers of multiple top-tier enterprises. Copper prices fluctuations had a limited impact on the company’s profitability. 1) The company adopts a “copper prices + processing fee” pricing model, with revenue and profit primarily derived from processing fees rather than copper prices themselves. Processing fees are negotiated between the company and clients based on factors such as product specifications and process complexity, and show a certain degree of historical stickiness; 2) The company effectively hedges copper prices through hedging, while fluctuations in upstream raw material prices are mainly borne by downstream customers, resulting in a relatively small impact on the company’s profit; 3) Rapid copper prices fluctuations may affect downstream ordering willingness in phases and lengthen order cycles, but copper application scenarios are characterized by rigid demand, so the impact on total demand is limited, only changing the pace of copper product orders, and the company’s overall operating stability remains strong. The company is actively expanding into the “aluminum as an substitute for copper” direction, with material substitution optimizing the gross profit structure while enhancing its ability to hedge against copper prices fluctuations. 1) On a per-mt basis, the absolute value of processing fees for aluminum products is usually lower than that of copper-based solutions (at the same performance level, processing fees for high-precision aluminum extrusion are about 10,000 yuan/mt, versus about 20,000 yuan/mt for copper semis); however, since the per-mt price of aluminum semis is significantly lower than that of copper, usually about one-fourth of the latter, the material cost base is lower, increasing the share of processing fees in total product value. The corresponding processing fee rate of aluminum-based solutions is about 13–14 pct higher than that of copper-based solutions, providing positive support to the company’s overall gross margin; 2) In terms of supply progress, the company’s electromagnetic flat aluminum wire and aluminum 3D bent busbars for vehicles have entered the certification and mass supply stage, while inner-grooved aluminum pipe & tube for air conditioners has already begun small-batch supply. Risk Warning: Risks of lower-than-expected downstream demand for new energy or capacity release, rising copper prices, and changes in trade policies outside China.

[Consumption Expectations Were Gradually Realized, Operating Rates of Galvanising Producers Continued to Increase]: This week, the operating rate of the galvanizing industry was 59.7, up 6.69 percentage points WoW. Raw material side, zinc prices pulled back sharply this week, galvanising enterprises actively fixed prices to stockpile, and zinc ingot inventory at galvanising enterprises increased significantly.