1. According to Xinhua News Agency, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning stated at a regular press conference on the 31st that, after coordination with relevant parties, three Chinese vessels recently transited the Strait of Hormuz, and we express our gratitude for the assistance provided.
2. An Indonesian Senior Minister announced that Indonesia will implement a rationing system for certain fuel purchases. The country's institutional budget will be redirected for "productive" purposes. The B50 biofuel policy will be implemented starting July 1st.
3. The USDA Planting Intentions report predicts that the U.S. soybean planting area in 2026 will be 84.7 million acres, compared to Reuters' forecast of 85.549 million acres; the U.S. wheat planting area is projected to be 43.775 million acres, compared to Reuters' forecast of 44.786 million acres.
4. According to the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing's Steel Logistics Professional Committee's survey and release of the steel industry PMI, the PMI for March 2026 was 50.6%, an increase of 3.9 percentage points month-on-month. After seven consecutive months below 50%, it returned to the expansion range, indicating that as the impact of the Spring Festival gradually subsided, the steel industry recovered and its prosperity improved.
5. According to Jubo Information, on March 31, Tianjin Taibo's float glass production line is scheduled for cold maintenance, and Jiangxi Ganyue Photovoltaic's production line officially shut down.
6. CSPT held its first quarterly general manager's office meeting for 2026 in Shanghai on the morning of March 31, 2026. The meeting decided not to set a reference figure for the second quarter of 2026 spot copper concentrate processing fees.
7. According to Jiemian News, at the opening ceremony of the 14th International Energy Storage Summit and Exhibition, Chen Haisheng, Chairman of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance and Director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, released the "Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2026", which predicts that the global cumulative installed capacity of battery energy storage will surge by 8-17 times from 2024 to 2035.
