Tianjin Port Magnesium Ingot Prices Stable Amid Sluggish Demand and Freight Challenges

[SMM Magnesium Express]According to Xinhua News Agency, the Ministry of Natural Resources released the "National Seawater Utilization Report 2025," indicating that China's utilization of marine resources is upgrading from "extracting water from the sea" to "extracting minerals from the sea." The report noted that Tianjin has initiated an international cooperation project titled "Key Technologies for Magnesium Extraction from Seawater/Concentrated Brine," forming a multidimensional industrial landscape for efficient resource development. Currently, there are 167 seawater desalination projects nationwide, with an annual capacity of 3.077 million tons. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, efforts will continue to strengthen the technological reserves for strategic element extraction from seawater, contributing a "Chinese solution" to addressing global freshwater and strategic resource shortages. The industrialization process for seawater magnesium extraction is expected to accelerate.

[SMM Magnesium Express]U.S. company Magrathea announced the completion of a new round of financing, with cumulative capital support exceeding $100 million, accelerating the reconstruction of U.S. magnesium smelting capacity. The company has built the only newly constructed primary magnesium smelter in the U.S., signed multiple commercial agreements, and aims for an annual sales volume of over $500 million in the future. In March 2026, Magrathea secured a $24 million Series A funding round and established Arkansas Magnesia in a joint venture with TETRA. The first-phase commercial plant has initiated engineering design. The company has independently developed a new generation of electrolysis technology, enabling green production of metallic magnesium from seawater and brine. As the project progresses, the U.S. domestic magnesium supply chain's self-sufficiency is expected to gradually strengthen.

Affected by the traditional consumption off-season and raw material price transmission, China’s deep-processed manganese products came under overall downward pressure this week. Products showed differentiated market performances due to distinct supply-demand fundamentals, with obvious linkage across the industrial chain.