The Most-Traded SHFE Tin Contract Consolidated at Highs During Night Session, Spot Market Trading Sluggish [SMM Tin Morning Brief]

SMM Tin Morning Brief, June 3, 2026:

Futures: The most-traded SHFE tin contract moved sideways during the night session, closing at 450,720 yuan/mt, up 2.22%.

Macro: (1) Microsoft (MSFT.O) announced an upgraded quantum computing chip and said it is on track to build a commercially useful quantum computer by 2029. The company unveiled the "Majorana 2" chip at its Build 2026 developer conference on Tuesday. The chip is a successor to an earlier research device that sparked controversy in the close-knit quantum computing community when it debuted a year ago. Microsoft's new device features 12 qubits—the fundamental units of quantum computing—an increase from the 8 in the previous model. However, Microsoft said the key achievement is that these qubits survived for more than 20 seconds. The company said qubits in the previous model disappeared in less than 0.012 seconds. Additionally, "Majorana 2" replaced the aluminum connectors of its predecessor with lead superconductors. "Given this rapid progress, we are accelerating our roadmap to scalable, practical quantum computers," said Chetan Nayak, Microsoft Technical Fellow and executive in charge of quantum hardware. "We have cut our timetable in half, and our current goal is to achieve this before 2029." (2) According to reports, a shell company linked to Musk purchased properties in a rural area outside Houston, US in recent weeks, suggesting it may be finalising a site for a planned $55 billion chip factory called Terafab. The Terafab project is jointly driven by SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI, aiming to provide chip support for artificial intelligence and robotics projects, with total investment of up to $119 billion. Land registry records show that the company, named "WIT Tech LLC," has acquired at least 6 parcels of land in Grimes County, totalling over 6,000 acres (equivalent to nearly 10 square miles), with transaction amounts undisclosed.

Fundamentals: (1) Supply side: Most smelters focused on stable production in June. (2) Demand side: Downstream purchasing remained cautious, with procurement conducted based on order conditions.

Spot market: As prices rose rapidly, spot market trading was sluggish. Some suppliers slightly narrowed their premium quotes, with mainstream brand premiums quoted at around 1,000 yuan/mt today. Despite a slight easing in market quotes, downstream enterprises showed weak willingness to purchase at high levels given the over 5% single-day gain in futures.

[Data Source Disclaimer: Data other than publicly available information is derived from public information, market communication, and SMM's internal database models, processed by SMM for reference only and does not constitute decision-making advice. The information provided is for reference only. This article does not constitute direct advice for investment research decisions. Clients should make decisions prudently and not replace their own independent judgment with this information. Any decisions made by clients are not related to SMM.]