May 7 SMM small metal spot price: magnesium ingot (main production price) ≥ 99.9% average price up 100 yuan / ton

【SMM Magnesium Flash】This week, the social inventory of magnesium ingots increased by 1.59% month-on-month, leading to an overall increase in inventory pressure. At the beginning of the week, a wave of concentrated replenishment of just-needed inventory appeared in the market, briefly driving spot transactions to pick up. However, the effect of boosting the market was fleeting and failed to persist. On the one hand, magnesium producers are firm in their attitude towards price support, which to some extent dampens the enthusiasm of downstream purchasing. On the other hand, the actual demand from end-users is weak, and the market lacks sustained purchasing momentum. There is no significant improvement in foreign trade, and current transactions rely heavily on the delivery of existing orders from earlier periods, with no new large orders to support. Meanwhile, due to recent weather conditions, port shipment schedules are tight and shipping costs remain high, which has hindered the delivery of foreign trade orders and significantly slowed down the pace of export inventory reduction. It is difficult for on-site purchasing sources to quickly be transmitted and digested downstream and overseas, resulting in continuous backlog of supply. Ultimately, this has led to a significant accumulation of social inventory, especially port inventory, this week.

[SMM survey: Magnesium alloys become core lightweight materials: Tianhao and Sinyuan ZM expand production in succession] Recently, the magnesium alloy lightweight materials sector has seen a series of industrial moves: Tianhao New Materials signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Haitian Zhisheng Metal, with an initial intent to purchase 9 magnesium alloy injection molding machines to deploy capacity in South China; Sinyuan ZM announced plans to invest no more than 280 million yuan to build a lightweight precision structural parts intelligent manufacturing project in Fenghua. Both moves reflect the continuously climbing application demand for magnesium alloys in the high-end manufacturing sector.

【SMM Magnesium Flash】 On September 17th, according to foreign media reports, Latrobe Magnesium has received a conditional non-binding support letter from a large American financial institution, proposing to provide $15 million in equity funding for the feasibility study of its 50,000-ton annual magnesium metal plant in South Carolina, USA. The availability of funds is subject to conditions such as financing matching, due diligence, and regulatory approval. The project uses nickel-iron slag as raw material and has the potential to expand to a production capacity of 100,000 tons in the long term. The company's demonstration plant located in Australia is expected to be fully operational in the second half of 2026, with all production sold to the US market through distributors.