[SMM Flash News] Aluminium ingot stocks in major consumption hubs drop by 19,000 tonnes month-on-month on June 26

The inflation indicator closely watched by the US Fed was officially released. According to data released by the US Commerce Department, the US PCE price index for May rose 4.1% YoY, the highest since April 2023; meanwhile, core PCE also rose 3.4% YoY, in line with market expectations and the highest since October 2023. In addition, the final annualized growth rate of US real GDP for Q1 was revised up to 2.1%, higher than the previous revision of 1.6%. Meanwhile, durable goods orders in May fell 4.5% MoM, the largest decline in nearly a year.

The US Central Command announced that US forces conducted strikes on Iran, responding to an earlier attack on a commercial vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Specifically, Iran used one-way attack drones to target the cargo ship "Ever Lovely," after which US fighter jets struck Iranian missile and drone storage facilities and coastal radar stations. US President Donald Trump stated that Iran's drone attack in the Strait of Hormuz violated the ceasefire agreement. Separately, Hossein Mokhbi, spokesperson for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, denied claims that Iran and the US have established a communication hotline concerning the Strait of Hormuz, calling the information purely fictitious.

Yu Weining, Chief Statistician of the Industry Department of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), interpreted industrial enterprise profit data for January-May 2026. According to Yu, raw material manufacturing industries recorded rapid profit growth.In Jan-May, profits of above-scale raw material manufacturing industries rose 83.1% year-on-year, contributing 10.2 percentage points to the total profit growth of all above-scale industrial enterprises.By sector: Driven by rising demand from emerging industries including new energy and artificial intelligence, prices of copper, aluminium and other related products stayed elevated, lifting profits of the non-ferrous metal sector by 117.1% and adding 5.3 percentage points to overall industrial profit growth.Boosted by price hikes across the oil industrial chain, the oil processing sector swung from losses to profits year-on-year, while profits of the chemical industry surged 71.6%.