Recently, the Jiangmen Xinhui Industrial Park (Fengshanhu New Energy Industrial Park) gained new momentum with the turnkey delivery and trial production launch ceremony for the graphene-coated carbon aluminum foil production site project, marking the project’s entry into the trial production stage. It is understood that the project involves a total investment of approximately 200 million yuan, covers an area of 50 mu, and has a total gross floor area of 33,000 m². Upon full completion, it will be capable of producing up to 48,000 mt of graphene-coated carbon aluminum foil annually. The project was invested in and constructed by Jiangmen Yingang New Energy Industrial Park Construction Co., Ltd., an enterprise under Jiangfa Group.

On March 26, the signing ceremony for the cooperation between Nanning Industrial Investment Group and Shanghai Dinghao New Material Technology Co., Ltd., along with the unveiling ceremony of Nanning Dinghao New Material Technology Co., Ltd., was held at the Chanto Aluminum-Based New Materials Xingning Industrial Park. Shanghai Dinghao New Materials is expected to invest 500 million yuan to build in Nanning a base project with an annual capacity of 60,000 mt of high-performance carbon-coated aluminum foil for new energy batteries.

On March 26, Dianjiang County held a signing event for investment promotion projects in Q1 2026, with a total of 28 projects signed and an agreed amount of 8.12 billion yuan. Among them, the project for the annual production of 50,000 mt of secondary aluminum and aluminum products processing planned to build 10 production lines for aluminum smelting and deep processing. After completion and commissioning, it could achieve an annual output value of 1.25 billion yuan and tax revenue of more than 10 million yuan.

On March 26, the 580,000 mt aluminum construction project of Wanji Aluminum Industry (Xinjiang) Co., Ltd. commenced. It is understood that the project adopts an EPC model integrating design, procurement, and construction, with a total investment of approximately 4.595 billion yuan, and is expected to be completed and commissioned in July 2027. Upon completion, the project will become a modern aluminum production site integrating green production, intelligent management and control, and full-chain supporting facilities, improving the entire industry chain from alumina and aluminum to deep aluminum processing.

Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine said on Thursday that France is one of the countries prepared to invest in Australia’s critical minerals projects. Earlier, a framework agreement signed between Canberra and the US prompted countries with advanced manufacturing industries to secure access to critical minerals supplies. Australia has launched a four-year plan aimed at building industries for minerals such as rare earths. These minerals are vital to future technologies such as electronics and national defense. Madeleine said: “Since signing the framework agreement with the US, some other partners have also accelerated this work, because they are also ensuring that they can secure access to critical minerals.” “France is becoming increasingly active,” she said.

On March 24, construction officially commenced on the 100kt-per-year deep-processing project for aluminum veneer panels in Tianlin County at the Guiqian (Tianlin) Economic Industrial Park. The project is invested in and developed by Guangxi Zhuoyuan Aluminum Technology Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 1 billion yuan, and is a comprehensive production site for construction-grade aluminum integrating R&D and manufacturing. The project will be built in two phases: Phase I covers about 36 mu and is expected to produce 50kt of aluminum coil annually; after commencing operations, it is expected to generate annual output value of 1.2 billion yuan.

This week, the weekly operating rate of leading downstream aluminum processing enterprises in China rebounded 1.1 percentage points MoM to 64%.

This week, ferrous metals retreated after a rapid rise. At the beginning of the week, the market said that Asia had shifted to coal-fired power generation due to a natural gas supply deficit, while Indonesia would increase coal production and impose export taxes. The rise in international coal prices was transmitted to China, and coking coal and coke led the gains in ferrous metals; mid-week, the Middle East situation remained volatile, and the U.S. and Iran held differing attitudes toward war, with ferrous metals consolidating at high levels; the pullback in the second half of the week was also mainly due to the weakening of the cost-side logic, as market rumors said long-term iron ore contract negotiations had been completed, expectations for tightening iron ore supply declined, and raw materials turned into the main driver of the pullback. In the spot market, speculative trading and end-user purchase sentiment improved in the first half of the week, while rigid demand remained dominant in the second half, and the spot-futures price spread widened somewhat......

[SMM Weekly Review] This week (March 23–March 27), platinum prices rose first and then fell back. On the GFEX in China, the most-traded platinum futures contract PT2606 opened at 487.1 yuan/gram and closed at 493.05 yuan/gram, down 23.5 yuan/gram from the previous week's settlement price, a decline of 4.53%. The highest price during the week was 518.85 yuan/gram, and the lowest price during the week was 437.25 yuan/gram; the most-traded palladium contract PD2606 opened at 355 yuan/gram and closed at 358.2 yuan/gram, down 16.15 yuan/gram from the previous week's settlement price, a decline of 4.31%. The highest price during the week was 380.65 yuan/gram, and the lowest price during the week was 321.15 yuan/gram. In futures trading, the most-traded platinum contract PT2606 posted total weekly trading volume of 46,314 lots, total turnover of 22.397 billion yuan, and open interest of 16,467 lots, with open interest down 2,049 lots WoW. The most-traded palladium contract PD2606 posted total weekly trading volume of 24,537 lots, total turnover of 8.71 billion yuan, and open interest of 7,356 lots, with open interest down 492 lots WoW. Recently, as geopolitical conflict in the Middle East persisted, the precious metals market as a whole entered a stagflation panic mode. The specific logic was that the US-Iran conflict exceeded expectations, pushing up oil prices and thereby triggering concerns over imported inflation in the US, which in turn delayed the pace of interest rate cuts. Regarding the US-Iran conflict, on March 26, Trump announced a 10-day extension of the deadline for Iran's energy facilities; according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency, informed sources said Iran had concluded that the US negotiation statement was a "deception" project, with three real objectives under its cover: first, to deceive the international community by fabricating a posture of peace; second, to suppress global oil prices; third, to buy preparation time for an aggressive ground invasion launched from southern Iran. Regarding the independence of the US Fed, the US Department of Justice admitted that its investigation into Powell lacked evidence. On tariffs, after the US reciprocal tariff was overturned by the Supreme Court, policy uncertainty increased, and the Trump administration was seeking a more solid legal basis to reconstruct the tariff system: in the short term, using Section 122 temporary tariffs to fill the tariff-rate vacuum, and in the medium and long term, planning to rely on Sections 232 and 301 to maintain a high-tariff framework. In addition, the ruling that the tariffs were illegal triggered pressure for massive tax refunds, exacerbating the US fiscal burden and reinforcing expectations for a weaker US dollar. Supply side, Eskom will raise electricity prices by 8% for two consecutive years in the future, and recently frequent announcements of breakdowns in negotiations with the mine side have led some miners to shut down their international operations, triggering concerns over supply disruptions in platinum and palladium. In addition, continue to monitor changes in the US dollar index, which involve the relative strength of currencies such as the euro and the yen. Watch for details on the new manager announced by the LME. Monitor the latest changes in the Middle East political situation. The precious metals sector mainly benefited from the interplay between policy and the political environment under the US Fed's midterm election time window. Strategy-wise, a strategic bullish view on precious metals was still maintained, and pullbacks were seen as opportunities to build long positions for the medium and long-term. In the short term, as the risk of escalation in the Middle East conflict has not been eliminated, the strength of any rebound may remain limited, and prices may fluctuate at lows. Under high volatility in platinum and palladium, attention should be paid to position control. Due to the discontinuity between domestic and overseas market trading, the opening prices of platinum and palladium often refer to overseas night session conditions, and investors should pay attention to trading prices in international markets and stay alert to opening gaps.

On March 18th, the handover and trial production ceremony for the graphene-coated aluminum foil production base, a supporting project for the Fengshan Lake New Energy Industrial Park, was successfully held, officially marking the start of the trial production phase. The project has a total investment of approximately 200 million yuan and, upon completion, will have an annual production capacity of 48,000 tons of graphene-coated aluminum foil. The Fengshan Lake supporting production project is a new energy industry project focusing on high-end manufacturing. It is a joint development project between Jiangmen Development Group's subsidiary, Jiangfa Industrial Park Group, and Guangdong Shengkai Metal Industry Co., Ltd.