The United Kingdom government officially launched a new national Steel Strategy on March 19, 2026, aimed at domesticating 50% of the nation's steel consumption, up from the current 30%. As part of this robust trade defense, the UK will reduce tariff-free import quotas by 60% effective July 1, 2026, while raising the maximum Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff to 50% for imports exceeding these limits. This move is designed to shield the domestic industry—currently transitioning from traditional blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces (EAF)—from global overcapacity and extreme subsidies.

The US is expected to launch two new trade investigations into the “surplus industrial capacity” of 16 major trading partners, including China. According to officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the move could trigger new tariff measures. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun pointed out that the so-called “overcapacity” is utterly groundless, and that China firmly opposes using this as a pretext for political manipulation. Meanwhile, the European Commission also made its position clear: if the US takes actions that violate trade agreements, the EU will “respond firmly.”

[SMM Aluminum Morning Meeting Summary: The SHFE/LME Price Ratio Continued to Weaken, and Aluminum Prices Were Expected to Fluctuate at Highs in the Short Term] Against the backdrop of continued tightening LME liquidity, LME aluminum still had upward momentum, with strong support from overseas prices, and the backwardation structure was expected to persist in the short term. China was in a phase of high inventory + weak fundamentals, and its upward momentum was clearly weaker than that outside China. Amid diverging domestic and external drivers, the SHFE/LME price ratio was expected to continue weakening, and aluminum prices were expected to continue fluctuating at highs in the short term.

India’s finished steel exports reached 6.02 million tonnes during the April-February 2026 period, marking a significant 36.6% year-on-year increase. This surge is supported by an 11.2% rise in domestic crude steel production, which reached 153.61 million tonnes during the same timeframe. As domestic consumption grew by a more modest 7.2%, Indian steelmakers are increasingly utilizing international markets to balance supply, despite global overcapacity and margin pressures.

In January 2026, the European Union and India reached a historic Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with the elimination of steel tariffs of up to 22% becoming a major market focus. However, clearing the policy fog of "bilateral exemptions" and analyzing actual export and carbon emission data reveals that the steel industry faces a highly asymmetric trade reshaping. This seemingly fair reduction is actually Europe trading a "capped" ticket for India's "uncapped" massive incremental market.

On February 24, 2026, the European Commission began trilogue negotiations on a new steel safeguard measure to combat global overcapacity. The regulation proposes reducing tariff-free import volumes to 18.3 million tons per year (a 47% cut compared to 2024 quotas) and doubling out-of-quota import duties to 50%, to be fully in place by July 1, 2026

The European Union will urge the US to further implement the trade agreement reached between the EU and the US in July, including a reduction in aluminium tariffs, during a meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Brussels, Belgium today. Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend the meeting with trade ministers from the 27 EU member states. This will be the first high-level meeting between officials from both sides since the tariff agreement was reached. In July, the EU and the US reached an agreement under which the US would impose a 15% tariff on most EU exports, but both sides are still negotiating further trade concessions. The EU wants the US to reduce its current 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, while Washington is demanding that the EU withdraw its environmental and digital regulations.The EU is also pushing for a broader "metals alliance" with the US to prevent China's overcapacity from impacting the economies of both Europe and the US. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen noted that the talks would be an opportunity to discuss how to "stabilize EU-US trade relations." He added that it was also "a good opportunity to discuss the issues we face together, namely the global trading system and China, among others."

On Friday, November 21, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) stated in its latest monthly bulletin that the global copper cathode market recorded a deficit of 51,000 mt in September, while there was a surplus of 41,000 mt in August. The agency reported that the market showed a surplus of 94,000 mt in the first nine months of the year, compared to a surplus of 310,000 mt during the same period last year. Global copper cathode production was 2.37 million mt in September, with consumption at 2.42 million mt. After adjusting for inventory changes in Chinese bonded warehouses, the market showed a deficit of 50,000 mt in September, compared to a surplus of 47,000 mt in August. (Comprehensive Report by Wen Hua) As the world's largest copper consumer, China's industry chain faces three major challenges: increasing external dependence on upstream resources, overcapacity in midstream processing, and downstream demand being suppressed by high copper prices. To help the industry navigate these changes, SMM has collaborated with copper industry chain enterprises to jointly produce. Click the following link to receive the Copper Industry Chain Distribution Map for free: . SMM Co-production Contact Liu Mingkang 156 5309 0867 liumingkang@smm.cn

In industrial production, high-carbon ferrochrome, as a key alloy additive, has a wide range of applications. However, China's ferrochrome market is relatively passive: on the upstream side, it is restricted by scarce chromite resources, with an external dependence of over 99.8%; on the downstream side, approximately 90% of high-carbon ferrochrome flows into the stainless steel sector, among which more than 80% is settled through long-term contracts, guided by the bidding prices of mainstream steel mills. Meanwhile, in recent years, the high-carbon ferrochrome industry has been plagued by severe overcapacity, leading to increasingly fierce market competition and significantly greater price fluctuations. Against this backdrop, after long-term accumulation and in-depth market research, SMM officially launched the High-Carbon Ferrochrome Steel Bidding Price Expectation Index. This index aims to more truly and effectively reflect the current market dynamics of the chrome market, predict market price expectations in advance, and reduce transaction risks and costs.

Although the China-U.S. dialogue in London sent a signal of easing tensions in rare earth magnetic material trade, the current situation in the industry is still marked by a contraction in short-term orders and a strong wait-and-see sentiment in the market. In the long run, Chinese magnetic material enterprises are leveraging this momentum to accelerate their transformation towards high-end and green development, with technological breakthroughs and supply chain restructuring becoming key bargaining chips for restarting cooperation in the future.