In 2026, the European Critical Raw Materials Centre (ECRMC) will be officially launched. This initiative is one of the solutions to accelerate the development of an independent supply chain, preventing the situation of “a single country supplying more than 65% of demand”. The center will have three main functions: monitoring and assessing the raw materials demand of member countries, conducting joint procurement on behalf of members, and stockpiling and delivering inventory when necessary. ECRMC, as some have commented as a “Tinder for metals,” will work with stakeholders to design a minimum pricing mechanism and framework. The first joint purchasing activity will begin in March 2026 through a platform that connects suppliers and purchasers.

Strait of Hormuz disruptions and Iran tensions are driving up aluminum prices and premiums. Aluminium Bahrain and Qatalum have cut output, while feedstock is tight. Rerouting via Port of Sohar or Saudi ports raises costs and delays. Buyers are turning to China, India, Russia, Canada, and scrap to offset risk. Prolonged disruption could reduce Middle East market share and reprice it as higher-risk supply.

Faraday rotator supplier GRANGPT issued a statement on production cuts. The core upstream raw material for Faraday rotators is SGGG (Substituted Gadolinium Gallium Garnet), which is made from bismuth-substituted rare-earth garnet using the liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method. Nearly all of the rare earths used by GRANOPT’s substrate supplier, SMM Precision, relied on supply from China, and the time consumed in the current acceptance process by China’s Ministry of Commerce has far exceeded expectations, so the company will gradually reduce Faraday rotator production starting in January 2026.

On March 18, the “Joint Struggle Headquarters,” formed by multiple unions at Samsung Electronics, announced that support for the strike that had been underway since the 9th of this month reached as high as 93.1. The union is expected to launch an 18-day general strike in late May. At a time when the global boom in data center construction continued to drive up demand for semiconductors, this move could cause wild swings in the global AI semiconductor supply chain.

POSCO International said on Monday that it was accelerating efforts to build a stable global supply chain for heavy rare earths, a key component in EV motors, by establishing its first corporate venture capital (CVC) fund. The company said it had set up a 25 billion won (about $16 million) CVC fund in partnership with POSCO Venture Capital, marking its first such initiative. As the fund’s first deployment, the company will invest 8 billion won in a China rare earth separation and refining specialist enterprise.

India’s stainless steel sector is grappling with a significant imbalance between domestic capacity and the surging demand for high-quality materials. Despite robust growth in infrastructure and construction, local production struggles to keep pace, while low-priced imports continue to hinder the full utilization of domestic facilities. To address these gaps, industry players are focusing on strengthening local scrap recycling systems and enhancing technical capabilities to meet international standards. Balancing domestic output with consumption remains a critical priority for the long-term stability of India's stainless steel value chain.

As supply and demand for construction steel were not fully matched across different markets, regional supply-demand mismatches created price differentiation, which in turn drove the cross-regional circulation of steel resources. When the regional price spread gradient was appropriate, regions with surplus construction steel capacity and production often shipped excess resources out, thereby rebalancing construction steel resources across regions.

According to the latest data disclosed by the General Administration of Customs, China’s imported copper cathode market, while maintaining the 2025 baseline, is facing dual challenges: the continued rise in the share of EQ copper and whether global supply will continue to be diverted. China’s cumulative copper cathode imports in January-February 2026 totaled 356,900 mt, down 33.13% YoY.

[SMM Aluminum Express News] Geopolitical tensions in West Asia have disrupted energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, tightening LPG and natural gas supply to India. With gas diverted to households, according to the Aluminium Extrusion Manufacturers Association of India industrial supply has been cut by 50–80%, severely impacting energy-intensive aluminum extrusion. Around 25 plants have been shut down while ~200 operate at reduced rates, dragging monthly output from ~70,000 mt to ~45,000 mt. The supply-driven disruption is tightening downstream availability and supporting aluminum product premiums.

[SMM Nickel Flash] News on March 23: Supply side, supply issues on the ore side continued to support the production cost of high-grade NPI, while nickel prices recovered and the market's low-price sell-off ended. Demand side, steel mills still showed a stronger preference for purchasing steel scrap, and their current willingness to purchase high-grade NPI remained low. Overall, the transaction center of high-grade NPI stabilized, and the market expects a rebound in stainless steel prices to boost the ceiling for raw material prices.