On July 16, Li Auto launched the new-generation Li L6 with a unified national retail price of RMB 249,800. Retaining the spaciousness and dimensional advantages of its predecessor, the new model has been upgraded in core experience dimensions including comfort, handling, intelligence and driving range, with intelligent systems as a key focus of the upgrade. It is equipped with Li Auto’s self-developed Mach M100 smart driving chip, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8797 cockpit chip and a 29-inch 6K panoramic display. A dual Mach M100 embodied AI package is available as an optional extra, bringing it on par with the RMB 500,000 flagship Li L9 in terms of hardware specifications with chips of the same generation. In terms of power, the battery capacity of the new-generation Li L6 has been raised from 37kWh to 51kWh, lifting its CLTC pure electric range from 212 km to 300 km, while charging from 20% to 80% SoC takes only 12 minutes.

Overseas rare earth markets diverged this week between light and heavy types. Driven by the uptrend in China, terbium oxide and terbium metal prices rose, while light rare earths remained stable. Trading-wise, heavy rare earths saw few transactions due to export controls. On the industrial front, U.S. companies accelerated domestic recycling and purification, while European and Japanese firms advanced R&D on magnetic material recycling and rare-earth-free alternative technologies. Meanwhile, Indo-Pacific and South Korean players actively restructured supply chains, and resource development and processing projects were intensively launched in locations such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Brazil. The global “de-risking” layout for rare earths continued to deepen.

[SMM Tin Midday Review: Easing Urgency of Tightening Outside China, SHFE Tin Fundamentals Provide a Floor, Sustaining Wild Swings]

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Drifted Lower in the Night Session, Downstream Enterprises Were Cautious in Purchasing]

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Consolidates at Highs in Night Session; Downstream Enterprises Mainly Purchase on Rigid Demand Orders]

[SMM Tin Morning Update: The most-traded SHFE tin contract saw a slight surge and then pulled back during the night session, and overall transactions in the spot market were relatively quiet]

TSMC (TSM.N) saw quarterly sales rise 36%, in line with market expectations, indicating that global demand for AI hardware remains strong. Based on calculations, for the three months ended June, TSMC's revenue reached NT$1.27 trillion ($39.6 billion), consistent with the average analyst estimate. The results were driven by a strong June, when sales rose 68% YoY. In June, CEO Wei Zhejia warned that even as the US adds more manufacturing capacity in the coming years, the company will still be unable to meet demand, led by US clients, for many years. This view was echoed by major chipmakers. SK Hynix currently expects that the ongoing memory chip shortage will extend beyond 2030. TSMC is set to release its full earnings report on Thursday, along with updated full-year guidance and capital expenditure plans.

This afternoon, Dongfang Computing Power launched its first flagship chip, the DF1000, in Shanghai. As the world’s first software-defined near-memory computing 3D chip, the DF1000 overcomes the three core bottlenecks in the development of high-end computing power chips in China with its "software-defined + 3D stacked near-memory computing" paradigm. Guo Wei, vice president of Dongfang Computing Power, introduced that the DF1000 focuses on source innovation in underlying computing architecture, achieving hardware-software decoupling and dynamic reconfiguration through software-defined chip technology, delivering 520 TFLOPS@BF16 of computing power at the 14nm process node.

GigaDevice, the "storage king," hit its daily price limit down. At the close, the stock was reported at CNY 550.8 per share, having fallen over 30% since June 30, with a total market capitalization of CNY 386.4 billion. Notably, on the same day, the storage chip sector to which GigaDevice belongs also plunged collectively. At the close, Shannon Semi hit its 20% daily price limit down, and many popular stocks such as Wuxi Taiji Industry, Demingli, and Shenzhen Kaifa Technology hit their 10% daily price limit down. In response, a GigaDevice representative stated that this round of stock price adjustment has a strong correlation with external market movements, "The magnitude of our company's current stock price decline is similar to that of SK Hynix; basically both are down over 30% now. We are all in the storage business, and the upward trends were also similar before." Regarding market concerns about the company's business, the representative noted, "The earnings forecast is the most convincing proof of our performance.

[SMM Tin Morning Brief: SHFE tin inventory pulled back to a year-to-date low, and transactions above 410,000 showed weakness.]