Among Japan's three major automakers, Toyota and Nissan saw increased sales in China in January, while Honda continued to decline. Toyota's sales rose 6.6% YoY to 145,500 units, marking the first increase in five months. Nissan's sales grew 10.1% YoY to 50,024 units, the first rise in two months. Honda's sales fell 16.5% YoY to 57,489 units, declining for the 24th consecutive month, due to delays in launching new EV models.

[SMM Analysis: Space PV Stimulates Market Sentiment to Heat Up, Yet the Path to PV Commercialization Remains Long] On January 22, Musk strongly endorsed space PV during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and disclosed key capacity plans. Musk stated that SpaceX and Tesla are simultaneously advancing solar capacity expansion, aiming to achieve an annual solar manufacturing capacity of 100 GW within the next three years to power ground-based data centers and space AI satellites. Following the earlier visit by Musk's SpaceX team to China to meet with Chinese PV enterprises, market sentiment in the PV sector further rose.

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Gold premiums in India more than halved from decadal highs this week as price volatility deterred buyers, while a pullback from record prices lifted demand in China ahead of the Lunar New Year.

[SMM Morning Meeting Summary: Macro Sentiment Remains Positive, LME Zinc Rises] Last Friday, the LME zinc contract opened at $3,280/mt. In early trading, it briefly dipped to a low of $3,262.5/mt, then fluctuated upward as bulls increased their positions. During the night session, it surged rapidly to a high of $3,387.5/mt, finally closing up at $3,383/mt, a gain of $84.5/mt (up 2.56%). Trading volume increased to 9,286 lots, and open interest rose by 708 lots to 230,000 lots.

The Secretary General of the Passenger Car Association stated that global auto sales reached 8.86 million units in December 2025, up 2% YoY. Sales from January to December 2025 totaled 96.47 million units, up 5% YoY. Global auto sales grew 5% in 2025, with China (34.35 million units, up 9%), the US (16.72 million units, up 1%), India (5.58 million units, up 7%), Japan (4.56 million units, up 3%), and Germany (3.16 million units, up 1%). China's share of the global auto market continued to rise, rebounding to a high of 40% in November and remaining at a favorable level of 37% in December. China's auto market share reached 34.2% in 2024 and 35.6% in 2025, an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to the previous year.

【SMM Steel】Japan's Nakamura Iron Works signed FAC for a 12.5-MN open-die press at its Aichi plant. The SMS tech handles aluminum, stainless, titanium, nickel at 205 strokes/min, cutting cycles and costs. Its compact drive uses 50% less space and energy. Nakamura uses SMS ForgeBase for automation and a SaaS package for data and fault monitoring. This 2nd collab boosts capacity and enables predictive maintenance.

China will enter Lunar New Year holidays next week, with logistics and scrap traders suspending operations, ending pre-holiday restocking. As the world’s largest copper scrap consumer steps back, demand across Asia has weakened. South Korea has seen clearer pressure, with No.2 scrap discounts falling from around 90% to 88%–89%. Japan, without a holiday shutdown, shows only a mild adjustment of about 0.5% in discounts.

[SMM Analysis: China’s Holiday Pause Cools Asian Copper Scrap Market; Recovery Uncertain] As the world’s largest consumer of copper scrap, China’s temporary withdrawal from the market has directly weakened overall demand across Asia. Regional buying interest has quickly faded, and the market has shifted from a state of “active inquiries and transactions” to one of “quoted prices but limited deals,” leading to a visible pullback in scrap trading prices across several markets.

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Fluctuated Rangebound During the Night Session, Downstream Enterprises Mostly Followed Up with Small-Lot Transactions]

According to data released by the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA) on February 5, Japan's imported auto sales (excluding Japanese producers) fell 12% YoY to 13,019 units in January. Battery EV sales increased 68% to 2,041 units, marking a return to growth after one month of decline. Mercedes-Benz sales dropped 13% to 3,031 units, ranking first; Volkswagen sales were 1,528 units, down 41%; BMW sales were 1,383 units, down 17%; BYD sales surged 3.4-fold to 180 units.