This week, the Pb50 domestic TC (weekly) held steady at 150 yuan/mt Pb, and the Pb60 import TC (weekly) held steady at -$170/dmt. Recently, ore-derived lead smelters in Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Henan and other parts of China were nearing maintenance cycles, and overall lead ore procurement volume was low. However, domestic ore-side disruptions also increased, with some mines suspending operations one after another, which reduced domestic ore supply; overall, both supply and demand were weak; on the import side, transaction prices for high-grade imported concentrates from Peru, Brazil, and Russia remained between -$200 and -$260/dmt during the week, while overall TCs were largely stable. The lead ore market remained in undersupply, and with silver prices rebounding and silver ore supply tight, the supply available to lead ore was limited. If domestic mine maintenance and production cuts increase going forward, or incremental output release falls short of expectations, lead concentrate TCs may still have room to decline. In addition, silver payable indicators in lead concentrates were largely stable as silver prices rebounded and the indicators were already at high levels.

Rio2 Limited’s Condestable mine in Peru processed more than 700,000 tonnes of ore in Q2 2026, producing 9.30 million lb of copper, 4,451 oz of gold and 74,374 oz of silver contained in concentrate. Average ore grades were 0.66% copper, 0.24 g/t gold and 3.88 g/t silver. Copper grades came in below plan due to higher internal dilution in certain mining areas, particularly in June, while copper recoveries remained slightly below expectations because of higher oxide content near the base of oxidation. Condestable maintained its February–December 2026 payable copper-equivalent production guidance at 21,500–23,500 tonnes. Rio2 is also advancing ore-sorting trials, a tailings filtration plant and a preliminary assessment to expand processing capacity to 10,000 tpd, with pilot ore-sorting equipment expected to arrive before November 2026. Current reserves and resources support an estimated 14-year mine life.

August 13: H200 pricing was clearly stratified—newly built 4-5-year long-term contracts were quoted at 116,000-117,000 yuan per unit per month, 1-2-year short-term rental quotes pushed up to 120,000+ yuan, and the intermediary market was bid up to 137,000 yuan per unit per month; east China also had 32 spot H200 units offered for three-year closed-end rental at 128,000 yuan per unit per month; in Ningbo, intermediaries quoted 45 spot 4090 units at 8,500 yuan per unit per month, and the source owner confirmed the units were its own resources and said, "Asking prices are useless; only transactions matter"; over the same period, the actual transaction price for 4090 in Shanghai was 7,200 yuan per unit per month; in north China, 3 Atlas 800I A2 units (910B4 64

SMM learned that a compute cluster in east China released 32 spot H200 servers at a monthly rent of 128,000 yuan per unit under a three-year fixed-price contract. Each unit is a Supermicro H200 with an HGX 8-card module, an Intel 8558 processor, 32 × 64GB 5600 memory modules, a 960GB NVMe system drive, 2 × 3.84TB data drives, and 8 single-port 400G network interface cards. SMM believes that the entry of eight-card H200 spot servers into the market under three-year fixed-price contracts reflects growing demand for price lock-in among high-end models.

SMM learned that a leading cloud service provider recently sought to rent eight H200 8-card servers for a 1-2-year lease term and can accept forward delivery of 2-3 months. According to channel-side feedback, the current external monthly rental quotation for newly deployed H200 servers is 116,000-117,000 yuan, corresponding to a 4-5-year long-term contract. This batch of H200 servers is being offered for lease only as whole clusters of 128 servers, with no order splitting for the time being. Market quotations for 1-2-year short-term rental resources have already risen above 120,000 yuan. Quotes in the intermediary market for similar resources have reached 137,000 yuan per unit per month. In addition, the price spread between H200 long-term contracts and short-term rentals is significant, and market supply and demand remain in tight balance.

SMM has learned that a data center in North China has released leasing resources for three Atlas 800I A2 (910B4 64G) servers, with a monthly rent of 26,000 yuan per unit, a minimum lease term of six months, and one month's deposit plus one month's rent. This domestic Ascend-architecture model is suitable for large-model training and inference. SMM believes that the six-month lock-up lease terms and the one-month deposit plus one-month payment structure adopted for domestic models reflect the supply side's search for a balance between price and liquidity.

SMM: A data center in North China released 3 Atlas 800I A2 (910B4 64G) servers as rental resources, with monthly rent of 26,000 yuan per unit, a minimum lease term of six months, and one month's deposit and one month's rent in advance. This domestic Ascend-architecture model is suitable for large-model training and inference. SMM believes that offering domestic models for rent on a six-month lock-up basis with one month's deposit and one month's rent in advance reflects the supply side's search for a balance between price and liquidity.

Alaska Silver announced that it plans to raise up to C$7.6 million (US$5.5 million) through a private investment in public equity financing, to expand its 2026 drill program at the Illinois Creek project in western Alaska from 6,000 m to 9,000 m. The proposed financing comprises up to 13.85 million units at C$0.55 per unit, with each unit consisting of one common share and one three-year warrant exercisable at C$0.75 per share. Closing is scheduled for August 14. The additional 3,000 m of drilling is intended to follow up targets at the Waterpump Creek silver-zinc-lead deposit, the Silver Sage discovery and other CRD targets across the district. Waterpump Creek hosts an inferred resource of 2.39 million tonnes grading 279 g/t silver, 11.25% zinc and 9.84% lead, containing 591 million lb of zinc and 518 million lb of lead. The company also plans to use the proceeds for metallurgical and technical work, baseline environmental studies and general corporate purposes; the financing and expanded drilling remain planned activities.

According to CCTV News on August 5, three mandatory national standards for energy consumption and efficiency in the photovoltaic sector will be formally implemented from January next year. The three standards are designed to rigorously control the entry of low-efficiency products at source, promoting technological upgrading and green transformation of the PV industry. In terms of energy consumption control for manufacturers, the two mandatory national standards – Energy consumption limit per unit product of monocrystalline silicon and Energy consumption limit per unit product of polysilicon and germanium – focus on the core raw materials of PV modules, standardising the scope of energy consumption statistics and calculation methods. In terms of product energy efficiency improvement, the mandatory national standard Energy efficiency limits and energy efficiency grades for crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and inverters establishes energy efficiency grades for PV modules and inverters used in ground-mounted power plants, commercial & industrial, and residential PV applications.

[Cochilco Again Lowers 2026 Chilean Copper Production Forecast; H2 Recovery Still Has Room to Materialize] Cochilco has recently lowered its 2026 Chilean copper production forecast to 5.27 million mt, down 2.6% YoY, mainly due to lower grades at large mines, maintenance, slower project ramp-ups and operational constraints in H1. Over the same period, China imported 4.2808 million mt of copper concentrates from Chile, down 7.9% YoY, with Chile’s share of China’s copper concentrate imports falling to 29.3%; the contribution of Chilean supply to the Chinese market weakened temporarily. However, most miners maintained their full-year production guidance, mainly banking on H2 recovery from the switch to higher-grade ore zones, the completion of maintenance, and project ramp-ups. Going forward, whether Chilean production rebounds on schedule will continue to affect the global copper concentrate supply-demand balance and the TC trend.