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[SMM Nickel Flash] February 6 - Supply side, market offers were basically flat, with the price center showing a slight increase. Demand side, there was no substantial procurement demand before the holiday, but transactions were difficult to conclude at low prices. Overall, high-grade NPI prices saw a slight rebound, and significant fluctuations are unlikely to continue before the holiday.

[SMM Nickel Flash] On February 6, the SMM average price for 10-12% high-grade NPI was 1,040 yuan/mtu (ex-factory, tax included), up 2.5 yuan/mtu MoM from the previous working day. The market sentiment factor for high-grade NPI was 2.06, down 0.04 MoM; the upstream sentiment factor for high-grade NPI was 2.84, down 0.07 MoM; and the downstream sentiment factor for high-grade NPI was 1.28, flat MoM.

[SMM Aluminum Express News] Danantara officially began construction on a major aluminum smelter and alumina refinery (SGAR) in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, on February 6, 2026. The total investment is Rp 87.7 trillion. The project, managed by Inalum and Antam, will have a 1-million-ton annual capacity.

Premier Li Qiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council to study policy measures for promoting effective investment. The meeting noted that promoting effective investment plays an important role in stabilizing economic growth and strengthening momentum for development. It is necessary to innovate and improve policy measures, and intensify efforts to enhance the efficiency of utilizing funds such as central budget investments, ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, local government special bonds, and new-type policy-based financial instruments. In conjunction with formulating and implementing the 15th Five-Year Plan

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the plenary sessions of the Party’s 20th Central Committee, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, strengthen top-level design, build computing power interconnection nodes oriented toward national hub periods, major strategic regions, and key industries, establish a system of computing power interconnection nodes, improve the efficiency and service level of public computing power resources, and promote high-quality development of computing power.

After intensive indirect consultations, the new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Muscat, the capital of Oman, has achieved phased progress. It is reported that during this round of talks, the Iranian and US delegations did not meet directly. Instead, Omani Foreign Minister Badr acted as an intermediary, conveying a series of core proposals, strategic concerns, and policy positions to the other side. The atmosphere at the talks was tense yet efficient. According to preliminary on-site assessments, although both sides continue to negotiate over specific terms, they have reached a consensus on the key objective of "continuing dialogue."

Pre-holiday stockpiling by downstream enterprises had largely concluded, and a few had already entered the holiday period, completely suspending procurement. Next week, secondary lead smelters will enter a concentrated wave of production halts and holidays, resulting in sluggish trading activity in the spot market. Offers for spot refined lead orders were sparse, with prices moving in line with the market.

The domestic secondary crude lead market experienced sluggish transactions. As of February 6, 2026, the ex-factory tax-exclusive offers for domestic secondary crude lead stood at 15,250-15,400 yuan/mt. Downstream refined lead and alloy smelters gradually entered the holiday period, showing weak stockpiling willingness. Overseas lead ingot suppliers basically halted transactions with China due to poor consumption in the Chinese market, with only some previously concluded shipments maintaining normal in-transit transportation. The trading atmosphere in the secondary crude lead market will continue to weaken next week.

SMM data showed that raw material inventories at secondary lead smelters increased by 20,000 mt WoW. With more secondary lead smelters and scrap battery recycling enterprises entering holidays next week, both supply and demand in the market are expected to remain sluggish. SMM predicts that scrap battery prices will continue to fluctuate at lows.

Lead prices continued to weaken this week, with losses deepening for secondary lead smelters. Most enterprises proactively reduced scrap battery purchase prices to control costs. Meanwhile, recycling companies actively increased shipments due to risk aversion and capital repayment needs, leading to a noticeable rise in raw material inventories for secondary lead smelters.

Lead prices were in the doldrums this week, with some downstream battery producers buying the dip and stockpiling as needed. Additionally, the scale of production cuts and shutdowns at secondary lead smelters expanded, slowing down the supply pace. Combined with downstream demand and tightening supply, weekly finished product inventories of secondary lead dropped by 9,100 mt to 25,700 mt.

Downstream battery producers have successively entered the holiday period, with low purchase intentions; coupled with low lead prices, most secondary lead smelters are also gradually suspending production. Due to expectations that environmental protection-related controls in Anhui will be lifted next week, local operating enterprises indicated that production is expected to resume.

At the beginning of the week, enterprises in production in Anhui Province implemented production restrictions due to environmental protection-related controls. Coupled with the additional enterprises that suspended production and took holidays over the previous weekend, the regional operating rate decreased by more than 16 percentage points this week.