China's Secondary Aluminum Alloy Ingot Inventory Falls 917 MT, Accelerating Weekly Destocking Pace

SMM, July 3: SMM has now received confirmations from the majority of buyers and sellers that the Q3 2026 Japan MJP premium is $395/mt, up $43.5/mt from the Q2 average.

Sinomach Heavy Equipment has achieved a major milestone in the intelligent high-end aluminum plate/sheet, strip and foil construction project for Huafon Aluminum, successfully completing and commissioning China’s first 2400mm composite aluminum hot continuous rolling line. Once commissioned, the production line can stably produce 450,000 mt of high-precision aluminum plate/sheet and strip per year, with products widely used in key sectors of the national economy such as NEVs and rail transit. This not only provides core material support for the high-quality development of China's new energy industry and high-end equipment manufacturing, but also further strengthens the resilience and security level of China's industry chain and supply chain for critical new energy basic materials, advancing the aluminum processing industry toward the middle and high end of the value chain. Relevant representatives stated that Sinomach Heavy Equipment will next steadily push the production line to reach full capacity and efficiency, ensuring its long-term stable and orderly operation. At the same time, in response to the needs of the new energy and new materials industries, it will continue to deepen technological iteration and create more demonstration projects for domestically produced high-end equipment.

[Expectations for US Fed Interest Rate Hikes Delayed, Short-Term Weakness in Aluminum Prices Hard to Break] In China, the proportion of liquid aluminum continued to rise, and warehouse withdrawals of aluminum ingots hit a four-year high in the past week. The further acceleration of the destocking pace has been the biggest highlight recently, but the absolute inventory level remains in a high range. Recently, with the continued narrowing of the geopolitical risk premium coupled with expectations for new project startups outside China, macro headwinds still dominate. LME aluminum is under significant pressure in the short term, and domestic aluminum prices are expected to follow LME aluminum and remain in the doldrums.