This week, copper social inventories in major regions of China continued destocking [SMM weekly data].

According to Yingketong, Midea Air Conditioning officially announced in July 2026 that it will no longer initiate the traditional Cold Year Opening for the 2027 new cooling year, instead fully committing to a new strategy of “battling for retail and competing for end-users.” This decision marks a temporary halt to the near three-decade-old model of “collecting payments in the off-season and chasing volume in the peak season” within the air conditioning industry. The “Cold Year Opening” is a unique business rhythm in the air conditioning sector. Typically, starting from H2 (from July/August to October/November), producers hold openings in batches through policy incentives to attract channel merchants to make advance payments and stockpile goods. Then, in H1 of the following year, they concentrate shipments through various large-scale sales promotions, creating a cycle of “pushing inventory in the off-season and chasing volume in the peak season.” The specific measures for Midea Air Conditioning’s cancellation of the new Cold Year Opening include: no longer holding opening meetings that involve centralized channel payments, policy lock-in, and large-scale stockpiling; abolishing the practice of “mandatory advance payments to lock in annual policies”; and shifting to terminal replenishment based on actual demand, with full-cycle normalized policies implemented.

Zambia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on August 13. The market widely expects that incumbent President Hichilema Hakainde will win reelection. For investors, the core concern is whether his second term can transform the economic stabilization after the sovereign debt default into robust, mining-led, job-creating growth.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta said production has resumed at its Los Pelambres copper mine, north of Santiago, after it was halted by heavy rains and a power outage. The London-listed miner on Friday maintained its full-year production expectations despite the brief disruption, saying there was no significant damage to equipment or critical infrastructure.