SMM Weekly: Magnesium Inventories Down 3.45% MoM, Boosted by Foreign Trade Orders

【SMM Magnesium Express】Recently, at the 2026 Shanghai Die Casting Exhibition, the integrated die-cast magnesium alloy rear floor jointly submitted by Li Auto and Changzhou Duoli Auto Parts won the "Gold Award Casting". Currently, the integrated die-casting in the industry mostly adopts aluminum alloy solutions, which faces a bottleneck in weight reduction space. As a strategic lightweight material, magnesium alloy can reduce the weight by about one third compared with aluminum alloy, and has outstanding vibration and noise reduction performance. However, the die-casting of large body load-bearing parts is prone to porosity and cracks, making it difficult to achieve mass production, and most projects only stay in the sample stage. Through self-developed magnesium alloy materials and optimized structure and die-casting process, Li Auto has achieved a 10% increase in casting toughness and a 40% increase in casting fluidity, breaking through the pain point of mass production of large magnesium alloy thin-walled parts. This component replaces the traditional multi-part welding structure, improving body rigidity; the weight reduction can improve the vehicle's power consumption and range; the inherent vibration reduction advantage of the material can also optimize the chassis NVH performance, balancing safety, energy efficiency and driving quietness. Li Auto has also become one of the few domestic car companies to realize the mass production of this technology.

【SMM Weekly Magnesium Inventory Express】This week, the social inventory decreased by 4.6% month-on-month, showing an inventory destocking trend. The destocking of social inventory this week is mainly affected by two factors: on the one hand, as it is the end of July, some long-term contract orders are delivered centrally, and enterprises purchase and deliver goods according to order requirements; on the other hand, some downstream end users also enter the monthly restocking stage, and a small amount of stocking purchases drive inventory digestion. At the same time, due to the recent high volatility of ex-factory prices of magnesium ingots, traders generally have low willingness to stock up except for necessary order fulfillment and replenishment, failing to timely replenish the consumed inventory. In general, the destocking of social inventory this week is relatively obvious.

【SMM Weekly Magnesium Output Briefing】From July 24 to July 30, the weekly output of sampled magnesium plants across China reached 22,140 tons, with a weekly operating rate of 72.64%, down 5.70% month-on-month. According to research, multiple primary magnesium smelting enterprises remain in maintenance this week, yet as manufacturers that resumed production one after another in the first and early second ten days of July, the primary magnesium output next week is expected to rise slightly.