SMM, June 29: In early trading, the SHFE aluminum 2606 contract's center traded higher than the same period in the previous trading session. Driven by the rise in aluminum prices, overall market buying sentiment declined today. Some warrant cargoes flowed out of the market, with ample overall circulating supply. Mainstream transactions were at discounts of 10-0 yuan/mt against the SHFE aluminum 07 contract. The east China selling sentiment index was 3.18 today, up 0.03 MoM; the purchasing sentiment index was 2.86, down 0.14 MoM. Today, aluminum futures saw a slight correction, with trading sentiment in central China being predominantly sluggish. Downstream processing enterprises exhibited low buying sentiment, and with traders recently releasing large volumes of low-priced warrant cargoes, market supply was abundant, leading suppliers to quote prices in a price-collapse manner for shipments, with poor willingness to hold prices firm. Ultimately, the actual transaction price range in central China centered around discounts of 20-50 yuan/mt against the SHFE aluminum 07 contract, with a weakening trend in prices. The central China selling sentiment index was 2.91 today, up 0.01 MoM; the purchasing sentiment index was 2.13, down 0.01 MoM. Inventory side, aluminum ingot inventories in major consumption regions fell 2.4 MoM today, with all three regions showing destocking trends.

Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia inaugurated the Mini LNG Plant of PT Sumber Aneka Gas (SAG) in Tuban, East Java, on Thursday, June 25, 2026, to promote natural gas utilization for the national economy; the project, which began in 2015 and entered its commissioning phase in 2026, produces LNG, CNG, LPG, and condensate with plans for liquid CO2, drawing gas supply through 2035 from the Sumber Field operated by PT Pertamina Hulu Energi Tuban East Java at 15 MMSCFD, with Bahlil calling it a tangible step by the company to meet domestic energy needs.

In June the aluminum processing industry exhibited a pronounced divergence pattern of "external demand outperforming domestic demand, with the aluminum wire and cable industry unable to sustain the market on its own." Export orders, energy storage, UHV, and other areas provided structural support, but a combination of weak domestic consumption, wild swings in aluminum prices, and policy disruptions made it difficult for the overall industry sentiment to recover markedly in the short term.

Today, the most-traded HRC contract traced an "N"-shaped pattern, closing at 3,319 with an intraday gain of 0.21%. Spot HRC prices were mostly stable, with some markets edging lower to facilitate transactions. On the supply side, no new rolling line maintenance was added this week, while previously idled lines gradually resumed production, leading to expectations of a slight increase in overall HRC output. On the demand side, current demand fully reflected off-season characteristics, with the market dominated by low-price deals. Amid the contango structure, some new hedging-related demand was released, though it remained cautious. On the cost side, the 9th round of coke price increases was about to take effect. Additionally, after the market closed, rumors circulated about a coal mine accident in Shanxi and customs clearance restrictions at the Mongolian border, which may provide a short-term emotional jolt. Looking ahead, the fundamentals of sheets & plates themselves remain weak in the short term, lacking bullish support. The focus remains on the cost side, whether on sentiment fluctuations driven by physical realities or expectations. However, relatively speaking, the extent to which sheets & plates follow these swings is limited.

SMM learned that a computing power operation enterprise in Guizhou currently has no idle computing power resources available on its platform for scheduling, with its existing GPU servers and domestically produced AI accelerator cards all operating under full load. Recently, as multiple industry large models have entered the fine-tuning and inference deployment stages intensively, computing power demand surged in the short term, causing the platform's computing power resources to be fully strained. It is understood that the enterprise is actively seeking domestically produced computing power resources as a supplement. As a core hub of the "East Data West Computing" project, Guizhou, according to the Guizhou Provincial Big Data Development Administration's publication *Compute to Guizhou | Digital Intelligence Empowers the Building of a Computing Power Hub*, had its total computing power scale surpass 160 EFLOPS in 2025, with the domestically produced intelligent computing share exceeding 98%. However, short-term structural supply-demand mismatch still exists, and the phenomenon of "one card is hard to find" during peak seasons occasionally occurs on some small and medium-sized computing power platforms.

[Domestic Iron Ore Brief Review] This week, domestic iron ore concentrate prices edged down. By region, prices in Tangshan, Qian'an, Qianxi, and other areas in Hebei were relatively stable; in western Liaoning, Chaoyang, Beipiao, Jianping, and other places, prices dropped by 1-5 yuan/mt; and East China fell 1-5 yuan/mt. This week, most mines and beneficiation plants operated normally as planned, with the overall ore supply remaining tight. On the demand side, steel mills and traders maintained purchasing as needed.

1. Tender Conditions The tender for the Copper-Steel Composite Cooling Stave and other items (AGGFGSHGZHD260629299670) is tendered by Angang Steel Co., Ltd. The tender funds are self-raised, the project has met the tender conditions, and an open tender is now conducted. 2. Project Overview and Tender Scope 2.1 Project Name: Copper-Steel Composite Cooling Stave and Other Items 2.2 Conversion to Other Procurement Methods upon Tender Failure: No conversion 2.3 See the attachment "Material List Attachment.pdf" for details of the tender content, scope, and scale of this project. 3. Bidder Qualification Requirements 3.1 Consortium bidding is not allowed for this tender. 3.2 Bidders must meet the following qualification requirements: See attachment (if any) 3.3 Bidders must meet the following registered capital requirements: Registered capital for production-type: 10,000,000 (yuan) and above 3.4 Bidders must meet the following performance requirements: Provide at least one supply performance from 2021 to 2025, requiring supply performance of 2-3 segment copper-steel composite cooling staves. If the contract cannot prove compliance with the above parameter requirements, please upload the corresponding technical agreement. Cooling staves are key components of the blast furnace body. For supply performance and quotation requirements, see the open tender requirements for details. 3.5 Bidders must meet the following capability requirements, financial requirements, and other requirements: Financial requirements: Provide a business license, registered capital greater than or equal to 10 million yuan, Capability requirements: See attachment (if any) Other requirements: See attachment (if any) 3.6 For projects that must be tendered according to law, bids from dishonest persons subject to enforcement are invalid. 4. Obtaining Tender Documents 4.1 All interested bidders, please log in to the Angang Intelligent Tender and Bid Platform http://bid.ansteel.cn to download the electronic tender documents from 16:55 on June 29, 2026 to 13:00 on July 21, 2026 (Beijing time, the same hereinafter). Click to view tender details:

1. Tender Conditions This tender for the Copper Cooling Stave and other projects (AGGFGSHGZHD260629299669) is invited by Angang Steel Company Limited, with tender funds sourced from self-raised capital. The project has met the conditions for tendering and is now open for public bidding. 2. Project Overview and Tender Scope 2.1 Project Name: Copper Cooling Stave and Other Projects 2.2 If the tender fails, it will not be converted to other procurement methods. 2.3 For the tender content, scope, and scale of this project, please refer to the attached Material List Attachment.pdf. 3. Bidder Qualification Requirements 3.1 Consortium bidding is not permitted for this tender. 3.2 Bidders must meet the following qualification requirements: See the attachment (if necessary) 3.3 Bidders must meet the following registered capital requirements: Production-type registered capital: 10.0 million yuan or above 3.4 Bidders must meet the following performance requirements: Provide at least one supply performance from 2021 to 2025, requiring supply performance for 2–3 sections of copper cooling staves. If the contract cannot prove compliance with the above parameter requirements, please upload the corresponding technical agreement. Provide relevant information (scanned originals) for copper cooling staves with bosses (where the total thickness of the wall body at the boss area is ≥400 mm, and the total length of the copper cooling stave is ≥2800 mm): see tender requirements for details. 3.5 Bidders must meet the following capability, financial, and other requirements: Financial requirements: Provide a business license, with registered capital not less than 10 million yuan. Capability requirements: See the attachment (if necessary) Other requirements: See the attachment (if necessary) 3.6 For projects that must be tendered in accordance with the law, bids from dishonest persons subject to enforcement are invalid. 4. Obtaining Tender Documents 4.1 All bidders who wish to participate may log in to the Ansteel Smart Bidding Platform at http://bid.ansteel.cn to download the electronic tender documents from 16:54 on June 29, 2026 to 13:00 on July 21, 2026 (Beijing time, the same hereinafter). Click to view tender details:

[SMM Coke and Coking Coal Daily Review] On the news front, some steel mills in certain regions have accepted a price increase of 50 yuan/mt for wet-quenched coke and 55 yuan/mt for dry-quenched coke, to be implemented from 0:00 on July 1, 2026. In terms of supply, some coke producers are still making losses, and the raw material coking coal remains tight. Coke producers have limited willingness to raise production, and coke supply remains stable. Additionally, most coke producers sell their output as it is produced, and some operate with zero inventory. On the demand side, hot metal production of steel mill blast furnaces remains high, providing firm support for coke demand. Overall, high hot metal production supports demand and costs provide firm support. The coke market is likely to hold up well in the short term, and the ninth round of coke price hikes is expected to be implemented soon.

Today, DCE iron ore futures started weak and strengthened later, with contract I2609 eventually closing at 746 yuan/mt, up 0.67% from the previous trading session. Port spot prices were unchanged from the previous trading day. Trader activity was moderate, and steel mills purchased as needed. Spot trading volumes were mediocre as of now. In the short term, the iron ore supply side continues to ease. According to SMM data, China's iron ore port arrivals reached 29.33 million mt last week, up 5.47% WoW and 5.94% YoY. Meanwhile, SMM's total iron ore inventory across 35 ports reached approximately 148 million mt based on the latest data, with overall destocking beginning to slow down. As downstream demand weakens, pressure on the iron ore supply side is gradually emerging, continuing to cap the price ceiling. Meanwhile, bullish and bearish rumors are intertwined in the news, which may drive iron ore prices to edge up slightly in the near term. Taking all factors into account, the market may continue its sideways consolidation pattern in the near term. [SMM Steel]