LME Aluminum Hits Over 2-Year High after Higher-than-Expected Cut Rumor at Weiqiao Group, SMM Reports

SMM Aluminum Billet Market: In July, the operating rate of aluminum billet rose 1.1 percentage points MoM to 58.3%, up sharply by 5.2 percentage points YoY. Benefiting from the strong performance of aluminum billet processing fees in Q2...

SMM tracking feedback: The 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Flores Island, Indonesia, had a relatively small impact on the aluminum industry chain. In terms of capacity distribution, bauxite, alumina, and the vast majority of aluminum capacity are concentrated in western Indonesia, generally more than 1,400 km from the epicenter; even the closest aluminum smelter—Sulawesi Morowali Huachin Aluminum—was approximately 624 km away, still outside the 300 km damage radius. Coupled with a tsunami wave height of less than 0.4 meters, the actual supply shock was virtually zero. On the pricing front, it may at most show a short-term sentiment pulse of 0–1%, which is expected to be unwound within 1–3 days, without changing the medium-term trend.

According to Philippine media reports on the 12th, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was planning to push for the establishment of a mandatory certification program for aluminum products that requires local and foreign manufacturing enterprises in the Philippines to obtain official Philippine quality and safety permits in advance and adopts a "one plant, one certificate" certification approach.