On March 12, PetroChina’s Tarim Oilfield “Aksu, Shaya County, Fuman Block PV Green Electricity Direct Connection Project” officially received approval from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region National Development and Reform Commission, making it PetroChina’s first approved green electricity direct connection project. Located in the Taklamakan Desert south of Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, the project is a comprehensive green energy project integrating generation-grid-load-storage. According to the plan, the green electricity direct connection project will build a PV power station with a total installed capacity of 100,000 kW as the source of green power. To ensure stable power supply and reduce the curtailment of PV power generation, an additional 20 MW/80 MWh ESS power station will be added to serve as a super “power bank,” effectively smoothing PV fluctuations and ensuring continuous power supply to the load. Connecting the power supply and the power consumption side will be a planned 2.5-km direct power transmission line and a 110-kV substation.

In January-February, raw coal production of industrial enterprises above designated size (hereinafter referred to as industrial enterprises above designated size) remained stable, crude oil production turned from decline to growth, natural gas production maintained steady growth, and the growth rate of power generation accelerated. I. Production of Raw Coal, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas and Related Information The decline in raw coal production narrowed. In January-February, raw coal production of industrial enterprises above designated size was 760 million mt, down 0.3% YoY, with the rate of decline narrowing by 0.7 percentage points from December 2025; daily average production was 12.93 million mt. Crude oil production turned from decline to growth. In January-February, crude oil production of industrial enterprises above designated size was 35.73 million mt, up 1.9% YoY, compared with a decline of 0.6% in December 2025; daily average production was 606,000 mt. Crude oil processing maintained growth. In January-February, crude oil processed by industrial enterprises above designated size totaled 122.63 million mt, up 2.9% YoY; daily average processing was 2.079 million mt. Natural gas production maintained steady growth. In January-February, natural gas production of industrial enterprises above designated size was 44.6 billion m³, up 2.9% YoY; daily average production was 760 million m³. II. Power Generation The growth rate of power generation of industrial enterprises above designated size accelerated. In January-February, power generation of industrial enterprises above designated size was 1,571.8 billion kWh, up 4.1% YoY, with the growth rate 4 percentage points faster than in December 2025; daily average power generation was 26.64 billion kWh. By type, in January-February, thermal power generation of industrial enterprises above designated size turned from decline to growth, hydropower growth accelerated, while the growth rates of nuclear power, wind power, and solar power generation slowed. Specifically, thermal power generation of industrial enterprises above designated size was up 3.3% YoY, compared with a decline of 3.2% in December 2025; hydropower was up 6.8%, with the growth rate accelerating by 2.7 percentage points; nuclear power was up 0.8%, with the growth rate slowing by 2.3 percentage points; wind power was up 5.3%, with the growth rate slowing by 3.6 percentage points; solar power generation was up 9.9%, with the growth rate slowing by 8.3 percentage points.

China’s Ministry of Finance launched the 2026 application process for pilot programs to address shortcomings in county-level charging and battery swapping infrastructure. For charging and battery swapping stations powered by PV generation, if the amount of electricity “generated for self-use” exceeds 40% of total charging volume, the annual total charging volume of such “generated for self-use” electricity may be converted at 1.2 times.

[SMM Hydrogen Energy Bulletin] Recently, Shell’s official website announced the results of its collaboration with Haide Hydrogen, applying intelligent fiber-optic monitoring technology to an industrial-scale green electricity hydrogen production system, enabling real-time, high-speed, and comprehensive sensing of internal electrolyzer temperatures, and helping improve the operating efficiency and safety of the hydrogen production system.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has confirmed its plan to operate two blast furnaces throughout 2026, despite significant electricity availability challenges in early 2025 that caused temporary shutdowns. The company’s mining department is currently operating at 75% of its full capacity, producing approximately 7.5 million tonnes of concentrate per year. CEO Mauro Longobardo noted that while port attacks have delayed some coking coal deliveries from Australia and the USA, the current production volume is sufficient for both internal needs and exports to European subsidiaries.

According to AXIOS, a new alliance formed by a group of companies including Google and Tesla will address energy affordability by making use of underutilized capacity on the power grid. As artificial intelligence data centers and other sources of demand drive electricity prices sharply higher, electricity affordability has become a central issue. The alliance, named Utilize, is expected to work with state lawmakers, regulators, utilities, and others to address electricity affordability by improving how the power grid operates, while also taking into account reliability of supply and the speed of construction. Alliance officials said they plan to soon release a study by Brattle Group showing that, through system improvements, US consumers could save as much as $180 billion over the next decade. Utilize’s members also include air-conditioning giant Carrier, deployment services company Sparkfund, power panel enterprise SPAN, and data center developer Verrus.

[SMM Aluminum Express News] Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Bahlil Lahadalia, has assured that coal stocks for PT PLN (Persero)'s coal-fired power plants (PLTU) are secure through April 2026. Speaking at a press conference on recent Middle East developments and their implications for the ESDM sector, held at the Ministry of ESDM office in Jakarta on Tuesday (March 11, 2026), he stated: "For PLN's needs, I ensure that through March and April, there is no issue." This reassurance comes amid global energy market volatility from Middle East tensions, helping maintain stable electricity supply during the upcoming high-demand period (including Idul Fitri holidays).

[SMM Platinum and Palladium Weekly Review] This week (March 9–March 13), the most-traded platinum futures contract PT2606 opened at 534 yuan/gram and closed at 541.6 yuan/gram, down 15.7 yuan/gram WoW from last week’s settlement price, a decline of 2.82%. The weekly highest price was 577.85 yuan/gram, and the weekly lowest price was 522.6 yuan/gram; the most-traded palladium futures contract PD2606 opened at 408.75 yuan/gram and closed at 408.1 yuan/gram, down 13.8 yuan/gram WoW from last week’s settlement price, down 3.27% WoW from last week’s settlement price. The weekly highest price was 430 yuan/gram, and the weekly lowest price was 397 yuan/gram. Futures trading: The most-traded platinum futures contract PT2606 recorded total trading volume of 31,227 lots during the week, with total turnover of 17.368 billion yuan and open interest of 19,989 lots; open interest decreased by 1,894 lots WoW. The most-traded palladium futures contract PD2606 recorded total trading volume of 11,077 lots during the week, with total turnover of 4.616 billion yuan and open interest of 7,612 lots; open interest increased by 11 lots WoW. At present, the US–Iran conflict remained dominated by political expectations, while the reality on the ground was still unresolved. On the political-expectations front, Trump frequently released marginal de-escalation signals to curb oil prices, saying the Iran issue was only a short-term military operation and expressing willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran; the TACO trade pulled oil prices back to around 90. On the reality front, Mojtaba, son of Khamenei, formally succeeded to power, and Iran entered the “Era of Avengers,” beginning to threaten the Strait of Hormuz; its foreign minister said the new leadership would refuse to negotiate with Trump. If the US–Iran conflict continues to escalate, it will push up oil prices and trigger concerns over imported inflation in the US, thereby delaying the Fed’s progress on interest rate cuts. On tariffs, after reciprocal tariff was overturned by the Supreme Court, the Trump administration will seek a more solid legal basis to rebuild the tariff framework. The risk of re-inflation remained relatively high, and disputes over new tax rates and tax rebates lifted policy uncertainty to some extent. In the short term, Trump filled the tariff-rate vacuum through the 122 temporary tariff; in the medium and long-term, he may maintain a high-tariff framework via 232 and 301. In addition, the massive tax rebate pressure brought about after reciprocal tariff was ruled illegal will further increase the US fiscal burden, thereby reinforcing the logic of a weaker US dollar and providing support to precious metals overall. Supply side, NERSA announced it had formally approved Eskom’s electricity price adjustment plan for the next two years: electricity prices will be raised by 8.76% in April this year and raised again by 8.83% in April 2027. As South Africa’s PGM mining is highly dependent on electricity, rising electricity prices will continue to lift the cost center for platinum and palladium. The US Department of Commerce issued an announcement, making an affirmative preliminary anti-dumping determination on unwrought palladium imported from Russia, preliminarily determining the dumping margin for all Russian exporters/producers at 132.83%. In terms of valuation, watch changes in the US dollar index, which involve the relative strength of currencies such as the euro and the yen. Pay attention to details on the new administrator announced by the LME. Pay attention to the March 19 FOMC meeting, changes in economic data, and the impact of Wosh’s remarks on monetary policy expectations. The precious metals sector mainly benefited from the policy and political-environment tug-of-war during the US Fed’s midterm-election time window. From a medium- and long-term perspective, the foundation for a bull market in platinum and palladium remained intact. In the short term, be alert to the risk of a phased adjustment driven by a delay in expectations for an interest rate cut; pullbacks should be viewed as medium- and long-term opportunities to add long positions. Amid high fluctuations in platinum and palladium, pay attention to position sizing. As domestic and overseas markets are not continuous, the opening price of platinum and palladium often references the overseas night session; investors should monitor trading prices in international markets and be wary of opening gaps. Spot market, this week most traders holding cargo actively quoted prices. Some traders reported that supply was currently relatively ample while the market was relatively sluggish. Most downstream clients had sufficient inventory and mainly stayed on the sidelines, with only some downstream buyers making small, negotiated purchases to meet order demand. Along with continued cooling in investment demand, transactions were relatively difficult and price involution was severe. Overall, spot market trading this week was generally subdued.

The Netherlands generated 132 billion kWh of electricity in 2025, a 10% year-on-year increase, with renewables accounting for 49% of the total mix. Solar output surged 17%, driven by a sunny season and a 4% growth in installed capacity, which includes around 550 MW of small-scale PV added in the first half of the year. Conversely, fossil fuels supplied 48% of the total, as natural gas and coal generation rose by 11% and 25%, respectively. Bolstered by strong domestic production, the country's electricity exports jumped 25% to 30 billion kWh, heavily supplying neighboring Germany and Belgium amid regional generation shortfalls.

According to Cailian Press, on Tuesday (the 10th), US Eastern Time, Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun unusually published a long blog post in his personal capacity titled “AI is a five layer cake,” and wrote: “We are just getting started with this buildout. We’ve already invested hundreds of billions of dollars. There are trillions of dollars of infrastructure yet to be built.” Huang Renxun wrote: “Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful forces shaping the world today. It is not an intelligent app or a single model; like electricity and the internet, it is indispensable infrastructure.”