SMM Analysis: According to SMM, the operating rate of China's copper foil enterprises was 89.59% in March 2026, up 5.33 percentage points MoM and up 17.77 percentage points YoY...

Gold has overtaken US Treasuries as the largest component of global central bank reserves for the first time since the mid-1990s, marking a significant shift in the structure of the international monetary system, Bloomberg reports.

According to SMM, the operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry was 77.25% in March 2026......

According to SMM, the operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry was 77.25% in March 2026, up 35.27 percentage points MoM and up 8.11 percentage points YoY. Among them, the operating rate of large enterprises was 86.39%, that of medium-sized enterprises was 61.74%, and that of small enterprises was 68.2%.

[Concerns Over Supply Shortfalls Triggered by Attacks on Middle Eastern Aluminum Plants Give Aluminum Prices Strong Upward Momentum] Overall, expectations of a substantive supply contraction triggered by attacks on Middle Eastern aluminum plants, combined with low global inventory and a recovery in peak-season demand in China, will provide strong upward momentum for aluminum prices. In the short term, aluminum prices are expected to break out of their trading range and hold up well.

This week, against the backdrop of fluctuating upward copper prices, the secondary copper industry chain showed a complex situation in which extremely tight upstream raw material supply coexisted with persistent negative margins for downstream finished products. In the secondary copper rod market, SMM data showed that the operating rate fell further to 5.45% this week, down 0.38 percentage points MoM and 25.43 percentage points YoY

[SMM Analysis]Weak Supply-Demand Pattern; Secondary Aluminum Prices Were Expected to Come Under Pressure and Pull Back in April

This week (March 27-April 2, 2026), the average operating rate of primary lead smelters in the three provinces was 62.05%, down 0.76 percentage points WoW from the previous week. This week, after a small-to-medium-sized smelter in Henan suspended production for maintenance, production in the region recorded a MoM decline, and the operating rate in Henan continued its downward trend. Operating activity in Hunan remained stable this week, while in Yunnan, one smelter cut production due to maintenance and another slightly increased output after resuming from maintenance, resulting in a slight decline in the operating rate in Yunnan this week. In addition, some small smelters in Yunnan and Hunan still had no expectations for resumption due to factors such as raw materials and downstream orders, while a smelter in Yunnan that had previously delayed maintenance is expected to resume production next week.

It was learned that the SMM weekly composite operating rate of lead-acid battery enterprises in five provinces was 73.45% from March 27 to April 2, 2026, down 0.47 percentage points WoW from the previous week. In April, the lead-acid battery market entered the traditional consumption off-season. Some enterprises reported softer end-use consumption and a decline in finished product orders, and planned to scale back their April production plans. The weekly operating rate edged down this week. Recently, the Chinese market coincided with the Qingming Festival holiday, and lead-acid battery enterprises planned holidays ranging from 0 to 3 days. Among them, automotive battery enterprises mostly took 1 day off, while e-bike lead-acid battery enterprises mostly took 2-3 days off. The holiday impact will be reflected in next week's weekly operating rate of lead-acid batteries.

Thu, 02-Apr-2026 12:23 Gold investing sentiment never stronger outside financial or Covid crisis... GOLD's SHARPEST price drop in 13 years just saw a record number of investors buy the precious metal on BullionVault as the US and Israel went to war with Iran, writes Adrian Ash at the world-leading marketplace. Private investors have seized on gold's price drop because this sudden retreat has given buyers the chance to reset the clock back before January's historic price spike. After setting new all-time highs and rising for 9 months in a row − gold's longest-ever run of unbroken gains − the price of gold sank by 11.8% in March (-10.5% in UK Pounds, -9.7% in Euros) as the oil-price shock drove profit-taking by central banks, institutional investors and traders needing to cover losses in stocks and bonds. Jumping on the price drop, the number of investors choosing to buy gold on BullionVault − now used by 130,000 private investors worldwide and finding 9-in-10 of its clients in Western Europe and North America − rose by almost one-fifth from February's count (+18.2%). That meant buyers topped this New Year's previous record and outnumbered sellers (who rose 0.4%) nearly 3-to-1. It also means that investing sentiment in gold has only been stronger at the peak of the financial crisis and then the Covid pandemic. Tracking the number of buyers versus sellers on BullionVault each month, the Gold Investor Index is a unique gauge of sentiment built solely from actual gold trading decisions. Rebased so that a reading of 50.0 would signal a perfect balance of buyers and sellers, the Global Gold Investor Index set a lifetime high of 71.7 in September 2011, and it hit a series low of 47.5 in March 2024 when gold prices rose to what were then fresh record prices in the absence of any notable economic or financial stress. This March the Gold Investor Index rose to 60.7, adding 2.3 points to reach its highest reading since August 2020 and extending the uptrend begun on the eve of the US presidential election in autumn 2024 . Having risen so sharply during Trump's first year back in the White House, gold has shocked many observers by falling during the Iran War so far. But while gold now faces headwinds from higher inflation threatening a rise in interest rates, the danger of economic stagflation only boosts the need to spread portfolio risk as the geopolitical order breaks down. The breadth of demand says that gold remains a compelling investment in today's uncertain and increasingly dangerous world. In contrast to gold, investing sentiment in silver fell in March as the more industrially-useful precious metal sank in price, with BullionVault's gauge dropping to a 4-month low. But that still put the Silver Investor Index at 60.1, greater than all but 12 of the series' 170 previous monthly readings. Silver's price crash of 19.2% in US Dollar terms was its worst 1-month loss since September 2011 (the worst in GBP since Sept '11 at 17.5%; the worst since March 2020 in EUR at 16.8%). In response, investors using BullionVault bought almost 1.5 tonnes more than they sold as a group, taking total client holdings to 1,134 tonnes worth more than $2.6bn (£2.0bn, €2.3bn). Gold's price drop meanwhile saw BullionVault users buy more gold than they sold by weight for the first time since October, growing their total holdings by 0.2% to more than 43.4 tonnes worth $6.4 billion (£4.8bn, €5.5bn). New account openings fell by 1/3rd from February's figure (-33.2%) and totalled less than 2/5ths of January's all-time record (-60.5%). But March still marked the 8th strongest month for first-time users of BullionVault in the West London fintech's 21-year history. Altogether, the first 3 months of 2026 have now brought more new customers to BullionVault than all but 3 full calendar years since it opened in April 2005. Adrian Ash Adrian Ash is director of research at BullionVault, the world-leading physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium market for private investors online. Formerly head of editorial at London's top publisher of private-investment advice, he was City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning from 2003 to 2008, and he has now been researching and writing daily analysis of precious metals and the wider financial markets for over 20 years. A frequent guest on BBC radio and television, Adrian is regularly quoted by the Financial Times , MarketWatch and many other respected news outlets, and his views from inside the bullion market have been sought by the Economist magazine, CNBC, Bloomberg, Germany's Handelsblatt and FAZ , plus Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore. See the full archive of Adrian Ash articles on GoldNews. Please Note: All articles published here are to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it. Please review our Terms & Conditions for accessing Gold News . Source: https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-news/gold-investor-index/buy-gold-iran-war-040220261