The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Consolidated at Highs During Night Session, Downstream End-User Enterprises Maintained a Cautious Attitude Toward Purchases [SMM Tin Morning Brief]

SMM Tin Morning Brief, May 21, 2026:

Futures: The most-traded SHFE tin contract opened slightly higher during the night session and then consolidated at highs, closing at 421,710 yuan/mt, up 3.93.

Macro: (1) Musk's SpaceX unveiled plans for the largest IPO in history, fully disclosing to investors the financial details of the company spanning rocket launches, satellite broadband, and artificial intelligence businesses. According to the prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, the company reported sales of $4.7 billion and an operating loss of $1.9 billion for the first three months of this year. Musk will retain 85.1% of voting rights after the IPO. The company also plans to conduct mining operations on near-Earth asteroids. The filing also showed that Anthropic will pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029. Although the offering size and proposed valuation have not been disclosed, media previously reported that SpaceX had discussed raising approximately $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. SpaceX will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SPCX. (2) According to the minutes of the April policy meeting released in the early hours of Thursday Beijing time, "most participants emphasized... if inflation continues to persistently exceed 2%, it would likely become appropriate to implement some degree of policy tightening." The minutes of this final meeting attended by Jerome Powell as Fed Chairman highlighted how the Middle East conflict has altered the outlook of the rate-setting committee. Kevin Warsh will be sworn in at the White House on Friday and subsequently lead the committee. The US Fed's next policy meeting is scheduled for June 16-17.

Fundamentals: (1) Supply side: Most smelters focused on maintaining stable production in May. (2) Demand side: Downstream purchasing remained cautious, with procurement conducted based on order conditions.

Spot market: End-users maintained a cautious attitude toward purchasing. Market transactions were mostly dominated by small-batch spot orders, with downstream enterprises procuring around rigid demand orders, and overall market trading activity was relatively mild.

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