The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Opened Sharply Lower in the Night Session and Remained Rangebound at Low Levels, While Trading in the Spot Market Was Relatively Mediocre [SMM Tin Morning Brief]

SMM Tin Morning Briefing, March 13, 2026:

Futures: The most-traded SHFE tin contract fell sharply in the night session, declining all the way to around 390,000 yuan/mt and closing at 387,730 yuan/mt, down 0.65%.

Macro: (1) According to reports, Samsung Electronics was working with Nvidia to accelerate the development of next-generation NAND flash memory chips. A joint research team formed by Samsung Semiconductor Research Institute, Nvidia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology successfully developed a "physics-informed neural operator" model. This model analyzed the performance of ferroelectric NAND devices more than 10,000 times faster than existing models, and the relevant results had been publicly released. Based on these research findings, Samsung was working with Nvidia to develop and commercialize ferroelectric NAND flash memory. (2) Data from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance showed that, in terms of production, China's combined power battery and ESS battery production was 141.6 Gwh in February, down 15.7% MoM and up 41.3% YoY. From January to February, China's cumulative power battery and ESS battery production was 309.7 Gwh, up 48.8% YoY on a cumulative basis. In terms of sales, China's power battery and ESS battery sales was 113.2 Gwh in February, down 23.9% MoM and up 25.7% YoY. From January to February, cumulative sales reached 262.0 Gwh, up 53.8% YoY on a cumulative basis.

Fundamentals: (1) Supply side: In March, most smelters were expected to gradually resume production and operations, emerging from the holiday lull. (2) Demand side: Downstream procurement remained cautious. Downstream enterprises were set to gradually resume production and operations, but orders were relatively mediocre.

Spot market: Transactions were relatively mediocre yesterday. When prices had hovered at high levels earlier, all segments of the market faced heavy pressure to replenish inventories and stockpiling, and sentiment remained tense. When prices loosened and fell to the 380,000 range at the beginning of this month, many downstream enterprises and end-users followed up with purchases.

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