SHFE Zinc Prices Closed with Losses (Jun. 4, 2015)

US President Trump formally nominated former US Fed Governor Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chairman to succeed Powell, whose term ends in May. However, the nomination still requires approval from the Senate. Currently, Senate Democratic Leader Schumer and Republican Senator Tillis have explicitly stated they will block Warsh’s nomination unless the investigation into Powell is dropped. Additionally, Democratic Senator Warren also believes Warsh is not a suitable candidate for Fed Chairman. During his tenure at the US Fed, Warsh maintained a hawkish monetary policy stance, but in recent years he shifted to support Trump’s tariff policies and advocated for faster interest rate cuts. Some analysts suggest that if Warsh ultimately becomes Fed Chairman, the US Fed’s policy framework could under

Recently, Yunnan Jiantao New Material Co., Ltd. completed core infrastructure construction, including the melting and casting plant and pretreatment plant, for its 6.6 billion yuan total investment project with an annual output of 600,000 mt of green, low-carbon, high-precision aluminum plate/sheet and strip and 100,000 mt of environmentally friendly recycled aluminum alloy ingots. To generate benefits as soon as possible, the company adopted a coordinated approach of "equipment debugging + production line" to fully advance the project. The project is expected to be fully operational in 2026, with annual output value exceeding 15 billion yuan. In October 2025, equipment installation began for the No. 1 production line of the 100,000 mt per year environmentally friendly recycled aluminum alloy ingot project, which has now entered the trial production stage. Dai Changwei, Director of the Melting and Casting Division of the Manufacturing Center, revealed that the project plans a total of five core production lines. The No. 1 line currently undergoing debugging is the alloy ingot production line, while lines No. 2 to 5 are for slab ingots. The designed capacity for the alloy ingot production line is 100,000 mt per year, and the slab ingot lines have a combined designed annual capacity of 780,000 mt.

Century Aluminum (Century) announced on Monday that it is set to acquire a 40% stake in a smelter planned by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to be built in the US. In May 2025, EGA announced plans to construct a smelter in Enola, Oklahoma, with EGA retaining a 60% stake in the joint venture. This smelter will be the first new aluminum smelter built in the US in nearly 50 years. EGA stated last year that it would invest approximately $4 billion in the project’s development. The two companies indicated that, with Century’s involvement, the planned capacity of the smelter has been increased from the previous 600,000 mt of aluminum per year to 750,000 mt, which would more than double US aluminum production. The companies stated that construction of the smelter is expected to begin before the end of the year, with operations slated to commence by the end of this decade. Additionally, the project is projected to create 1,000 permanent jobs at the site and support 4,000 construction jobs. Former US President Donald Trump sought to boost domestic aluminum production by imposing tariffs on aluminum imports. Aluminum is one of the US’s critical minerals. Since June last year, the tariff rate doubled to 50%, driving the US Midwest aluminum premium to a record 99¢ per pound this month, equivalent to approximately $2,183 per mt.