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.

[SMM Chromium Daily Review: Quotes Continued to Rise, Strong Willingness to Hold Prices Firm] News on March 5, 2026: Today, the ex-factory price of high-carbon ferrochrome in Inner Mongolia rose by 50 yuan/mt (50% metal content) MoM from the previous trading day...

[SMM Lead Morning Meeting Minutes: Bullish and Bearish Factors Coexisted in Domestic and Overseas Markets; Lead Prices Were Expected to Remain Consolidated] US Treasury Secretary Bessent: A 15% global tariff might be implemented this week, pledged to safeguard the Persian Gulf, and hinted that more measures were forthcoming. Recently, lead-acid battery enterprises in the domestic market basically resumed production, and the overall operating rate in March rebounded sharply from February…

This week, ternary cathode precursor prices declined slightly. Raw materials, nickel sulphate prices edged up today, cobalt sulphate prices declined again, and manganese sulphate prices held steady.

SMM News, March 5: Data Brief: As of Thursday, March 5, SMM copper inventories in major regions nationwide increased 8.56% WoW from last Thursday, with total inventories up 209,200 mt YoY versus the same period last year, showing divergent performance across regions. By region, Shanghai’s copper cathode inventories continued to build up. Despite some recovery in consumption, inventories still trended upward due to continued arrivals of imported cargoes; in Jiangsu, recovering downstream consumption drove a slight destocking; in Guangdong, downstream enterprise consumption gradually recovered, and inventories edged down. Looking ahead, on the supply side, imported cargoes are expected to continue arriving at ports, while deliveries of domestic supply are expected to remain stable. On the demand side, downstream enterprises have resumed work and production; coupled with a pullback in copper prices, consumption has recovered notably. Based on the overall supply-demand pattern, supply is expected to remain normal next week and consumption is expected to recover steadily, with weekly inventories expected to see some destocking.

SMM Morning Meeting Minutes: Overnight, LME copper opened at $13,146/mt and hit an early high of $13,153/mt. Thereafter, the center of copper prices gradually moved lower, dipping to $12,975/mt near the close, and finally settled at $13,027.5/mt, up 0.49%. Trading volume rose to 25,000 lots, and open interest to 306,000 lots, down 1,096 lots from the previous trading day, mainly due to bears reducing positions. Overnight, the most-traded SHFE copper 2604 contract opened at 101,640 yuan/mt and climbed early to 102,080 yuan/mt, then fluctuated downward to a low of 101,200 yuan/mt, followed by wide swings, and finally settled at 101,700 yuan/mt, up 0.45%. Trading volume rose to 44,800 lots, and open interest to 195,000 lots, down 213 lots from the previous trading day, mainly due to bears reducing positions.

According to SMM data, the composite operating rate of copper bar enterprises in February was 22.78%, down 22.08 percentage points MoM and down 17.64 percentage points YoY.

[SMM Lead Morning Brief: Geopolitical Risks Ease, Lead Prices Recover the Previous Day’s Losses] SMM, March 5: Overnight, LME lead opened at $1,937/mt. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East persisted, but the impact of bearish news weakened...

[SMM Daily Chrome Review: Ore-Side Uptrend Continued, with Cost Support for Ferrochrome] News on March 4, 2026: The ex-factory price of high-carbon ferrochrome in Inner Mongolia was flat MoM from the previous trading day…

[SMM Daily Review: Back-and-Forth Negotiations Between Upstream and Downstream Continued; Tight Supply of High Nickel Unit Cargoes Sustained Premiums] News on March 5: The upstream sentiment factor for SMM high-grade NPI was 2.88, up 0.01 MoM, while the downstream sentiment factor for high-grade NPI was 1.37, up 0.05 MoM.