News

[Silicon Metal Prices Consolidate, Polysilicon Enterprises Raise Offers]: Spot silicon metal prices were mostly stable this week, with slight increases for some grades. Futures price fluctuations widened, and the most-traded contract trended lower on Thursday, dragged down by macro and capital sentiment. As of February 5, SMM oxygen-blown #553 silicon in east China was at 9,300-9,400 yuan/mt, up 100 yuan/mt WoW; #441 silicon was at 9,400-9,600 yuan/mt, up 100 yuan/mt WoW; and #3303 silicon was at 10,200-10,500 yuan/mt, flat WoW. In the futures market, the most-traded contract moved erratically, trending downward on Thursday, with the weekly high at 9,010 yuan/mt and the low at 8,600 yuan/mt. After the futures decline, some buy orders from traders and downstream users were executed.

This week, the cobalt sulphate market remained largely sluggish overall. However, supported by positive news from the upstream mining sector, market purchasing sentiment showed some recovery compared to the previous period. Supply side, as the Chinese New Year holiday approaches, most smelters have successively arranged for production halts and maintenance. Combined with mining news strengthening bullish expectations for the future market, some enterprises have chosen to suspend quotations, while those maintaining quotations have raised their target prices to 96,000-98,000 yuan/mt. Demand side, due to concerns about a rapid price increase for cobalt sulphate after the holiday, downstream enterprises' purchase willingness has strengthened. It is reported that some companies' purchase intention prices for high-nickel cobalt sulphate have rebounded to 92,000 yuan/mt, while the purchase intention prices for low-nickel cobalt sulphate are in the range of 95,000-96,000 yuan/mt. Overall, as logistics gradually halt before the Chinese New Year, actual market transactions are expected to be quite limited next week, and cobalt sulphate prices are likely to remain largely stable. After the holiday, as downstream enterprises gradually resume procurement, prices may regain an upward trend.

This week, the domestic refined cobalt market saw limited overall changes, with spot prices fluctuating at lows. Supply side, affected by the decline in futures prices, mainstream smelters' spot premiums were too high, leading them to lower ex-factory prices; traders were bullish on the market outlook, hedgers raised spot-futures price spread quotes, while some unilateral speculators temporarily suspended quotations to observe the market. Demand side, as prices gradually stabilized, purchase willingness among some end-users recovered, with mainstream transaction prices concentrated in the range of 415,000–420,000 yuan/mt. Fundamentally, this round of price correction in domestic refined cobalt was mainly driven by market capital fluctuations and the broad decline in other metal prices. In the short term, as cobalt intermediate products still cannot arrive at ports in large quantities, the tight supply pattern of upstream raw materials has not fundamentally changed, and refined cobalt prices are expected to remain supported on the downside.

The cobalt intermediate products market remained in a state of nominal pricing with thin trading this week, with prices holding steady in the range of $25.5–26.0/lb. News such as the US "stockpiling plan" and the acquisition of certain cobalt mining rights of overseas miners by US-funded enterprises heightened market concerns about cobalt raw material shortages in China in 2026, strengthening suppliers' willingness to hold prices firm. However, as the year-end approaches, some smelters have entered the stage of clearing production lines and preparing for shutdowns, leading to a noticeable decline in purchase willingness and resulting in sluggish actual market transactions. Overall, against the backdrop of large-scale arrivals of cobalt intermediate products remaining distant, increased geopolitical risks are expected to exacerbate the structural tightness of domestic intermediate products, maintaining upward pressure on prices.

[SMM Silicone Weekly Review: Pre-Holiday Restocking by Mid- and Downstream Clients Gradually Winding Down, Overall Trading Sentiment in the Silicone Market Pulled Back] This week, domestic silicone DMC prices remained largely stable, with the mainstream transaction range edging up to 13,800-14,000 yuan/mt, flat WoW. By region, monomer enterprises in Shandong quoted 13,800 yuan/mt, while other major monomer enterprises quoted 14,000 yuan/mt. Overall market activity declined noticeably from the previous period, with new order performance generally subdued and mostly limited to small, rigid demand-based transactions.

[Zinc Ingot Inventory Continues to Accumulate, Zinc Prices Weaken During the Day]: The most-traded SHFE zinc 2603 contract opened at 24,800 yuan/mt, touched a high of 24,815 yuan/mt early in the session, then fluctuated downward throughout, approaching a low of 24,390 yuan/mt near the close, and finally settled down at 24,395 yuan/mt, falling 375 yuan/mt, a decline of 1.51%.

Today, the DCE iron ore market trended weaker. The benchmark contract, I2605, closed at 768.5 RMB/tonne, registering a decline of 1.73% from the previous trading session. Spot prices in the physical market dropped by 7–8 RMB/tonne compared to the prior day.

On February 5, Changan Automobile unveiled its global sodium-ion battery strategy, and the world's first mass-produced sodium-ion battery passenger vehicle was officially introduced. Test data shows that the vehicle equipped with CATL's sodium-ion battery delivers nearly three times the discharge power compared to conventional lithium iron phosphate vehicles with the same battery capacity under -30°C conditions. In extreme cold environments of -40°C, it maintains over 90% capacity retention, and it can still discharge stably even at the extreme low temperature of -50°C.

On February 4, Foxconn's New Energy Vehicle R&D Center officially commenced operations in Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, Henan Province. The launch of this facility will assist Foxconn in building an efficient industrial ecosystem, reducing the new vehicle production cycle to 24 months. This also signifies that Foxconn has established comprehensive end-to-end capabilities, from product planning and platform development to vehicle manufacturing.

[Domestic Iron Ore Brief: Iron Ore Concentrate Prices in Tangshan May Remain in the Doldrums] Iron ore concentrate prices in Tangshan edged down by 1–5 yuan/mt, with the current ex-factory price for 66% grade dry basis concentrates including tax at 980–985 yuan/mt. The fundamental structure of domestic iron ore prices remains unchanged, with overall supply still relatively tight. However, as the year-end approaches, mines and beneficiation plants have been releasing some supply appropriately.

According to data released by the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA) on February 5, Japan's imported auto sales (excluding Japanese producers) fell 12% YoY to 13,019 units in January. Battery EV sales increased 68% to 2,041 units, marking a return to growth after one month of decline. Mercedes-Benz sales dropped 13% to 3,031 units, ranking first; Volkswagen sales were 1,528 units, down 41%; BMW sales were 1,383 units, down 17%; BYD sales surged 3.4-fold to 180 units.

[SMM Hot-Rolled Coil Daily Trading] On February 5, the total daily trading volume of hot-rolled coil from SMM's four-city (Shanghai, Lecong, Tianjin, Ningbo) sample enterprises amounted to 9,690 mt, down 1,450 mt (13.0%) day-on-day, up 0.21% YoY on a Gregorian calendar basis, and up 27.33% YoY on a lunar calendar basis.

Japanese electronics and materials enterprise Maxell announced on the 4th that it will sell its subsidiary Wuxi Maxell Energy Co., Ltd., which produces lithium-ion batteries, to Zhejiang Xinghuan Holding Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Galaxy Energy. The transaction amount is approximately 48.96 million yuan, and the equity transfer is expected to be completed within the month.