China Refined Tin Output to Drop in July, SMM Forecasts

Market data showed that in Q1 2026, China's consumer-grade XR market formed a dual-track development pattern with AR sustaining growth and VR undergoing structural adjustment, with total sales of 190,000 units, up 63% YoY. Among them, the AR market grew 111% YoY, while the VR market continued to decline. The market expects that in H2 2026, with the popularization of optical waveguide technology, breakthroughs in MicroLED mass production, and deep integration of AI large models, the AR industry will usher in multi-technology convergence and application scenario expansion, accelerating penetration into the mass consumer market and driving the industry into a new phase of full-scenario intelligent interaction.

Alibaba's financial report stated that T-Head Semiconductor Co., Ltd., as its chip design subsidiary, had achieved widespread industrial application of its independently developed AI chips, with large-scale application cases first emerging in the automotive industry. Over 100,000 Zhenwu PPU cards had been deployed on Alibaba Cloud's public cloud platform, and more than 30 leading automakers and autonomous driving companies were conducting intelligent driving R&D based on this chip. The Zhenwu chip, together with Alibaba Cloud and the Qwen model, formed a complete integrated technology stack, significantly enhancing training and inference efficiency.

Global demand for new-type energy storage surged, driving sustained strong orders for energy storage battery cells and a tightening supply-demand pattern for battery cells. Amid the robust momentum of operating at nearly full capacity, top-tier battery enterprises and second-tier producers ramped up investment, as the industry shifted from earlier cautious wait-and-see approaches to proactive capacity expansion. Wang Pengcheng, co-founder and president of Hithium, which ranked second globally in energy storage battery cell shipments, recently stated that the company's orders had been booked through 2027. More precisely, "by the end of 2027, all orders have been locked in ahead of schedule." He also candidly pointed out a phenomenon within the industry: although the capacity utilization rate of top-tier players already exceeded 95%, the reality was that there was overcapacity in outdated capacity while advanced capacity was severely insufficient. He emphasized that the industry should be vigilant against low-level redundant construction at this stage. When discussing Hithium's own expansion considerations, Wang Pengcheng declared, "All capacity going forward must be advanced capacity only. We will not build redundant capacity, and we will not expand unless we are leading.