China's automobile production and sales were 2.04 million units and 2.13 million units, down 8.7% and 5.5% month on month respectively, and falling 6.8% and 3.1% year on year.

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC), General Administration of Market Regulation, MIIT, SASAC, and CSRC held a meeting to give instructions to key enterprises in iron ore, steel, copper, and aluminium industries.

Operating rates of blast furnaces at steel mills fell 1.2 percentage points from a week ago and decreased 0.9 percentage point from a month ago to 85.7% as of May 27, SMM survey showed.

Tangshan Tianzhu Iron & Steel plans to complete the first phase of the relocation (shutting down 2 blast furnaces, 2 sintering machines and 1 shaft furnace) before the end of October 2021.

The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) reported that crude steel output across major mills in China averaged 2.32 million mt per day in the second ten days of April, up 2.21% from early April and up 19.1% from the same period a year ago.

On March 11, Huang Runqiu, Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment visited Tangshan City in Hebei Province to inspect the implementation of emergency emission reduction measures for heavy pollution weather in steel enterprises.

The merger of Shandong Iron and Steel Group into Baowu Group has entered a substantive stage, and it is expected that there may be official news after CNY. The merger of Shandong Iron & Steel Group will lay a solid foundation for Baowu Group's capacity expansion in the north.

Operations at Chinese manufacturers of flat-rolled copper products slowed in April, as backlogged orders had been fulfilled and as the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions dealt a blow to the demand that have already been weak.

Guangxi Tianyuan New Energy Material has put its 10,000 mt/year lithium carbonate production line into operation, SMM learned.

Southwest China’s Sichuan province lowered electricity tariffs to the normal season mode on Saturday. There were barely any silicon producers in the region stepping up production, SMM research found, due to weak silicon prices and limited power supply caused by continued drought.