Aluminium billet inventories rose 100,700 mt on week

As of May this year, Southwest Aluminum's product production was up 10.1% YoY, setting a new record for the same period, and the production-sales ratio remained at 100%. Specifically, the Rolling Plant improved its rolling production process, with production up 3.4% YoY; the Plate & Strip Company, focusing on full detailed order production scheduling, saw production up 8.4% YoY, while its hot continuous rolling line production was up 5.1% YoY, hitting a new high. In addition, the production of automotive sheets and ship plates surged 72% and 174.1% YoY, respectively.

ChinaIOL monitoring data shows that in May 2026, China's household air conditioner production was 18.74 million units, down 10.0% YoY; sales were 19.58 million units, down 11.1% YoY; of which exports were 7.58 million units, down 4.2% YoY; and domestic sales were 12.00 million units, down 15.0% YoY. Production and sales continued to decline. Affected by the domestic end-use market climate, the YoY decline in domestic sales widened significantly. Under inventory pressure, production was proactively reduced to start destocking.

New Fed Chair Warsh adjusted the Fed's communication framework during his first quarterly press conference, downplaying the emphasis on dot plot guidance and cautioning the market against overinterpreting policymakers' interest rate projections. He did not submit his own individual projections. Warsh stated that the current high inflation is sustained by three long-term factors—energy, tariffs, and housing—rather than a short-term one-off disturbance, and that price stability is the primary policy goal. Warsh did not lock in a fixed interest rate path, stressing that rates could be adjusted in either direction at every meeting and that the Fed would not proactively cut interest rates solely to boost the economy. Over the longer term, AI is expected to improve productivity and ease inflation pressures after 2027, becoming the core prerequisite for rate cuts. Warsh's overall stance was hawkish, further extinguishing near-term market expectations for rate cuts and driving a notable rise in market-implied probabilities of a year-end interest rate hike.