----Interview with Xiaoning Zhang
Party Committee Secretary, Chairman
Guangxi Huaxi Nonferrous Metal Co., Ltd
Guangxi Huaxi Nonferrous Metal Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Huaxi Nonferrous Metals": 600301) is a state-owned large-scale enterprise directly under the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region – a listed company actually controlled by Guangxi Key Metals Industry Development Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Key Metals Group"), and is also the only state-owned listed entity in Guangxi's nonferrous metals industry. It bears the core mission of safeguarding national strategic security of key metals and promoting high-quality development of the regional industry.
Asian Metal: Welcome, Chairman Zhang, to the Asian Metal interview. As a major listed company in the domestic tin, antimony and indium sectors, could you briefly introduce Huaxi Nonferrous Metals' core business layout, resource reserve advantages, and current overall operating situation?
Mr. Zhang: Thank you very much to Asian Metal for providing us with this opportunity to exchange ideas. As a key metal enterprise rooted in Guangxi with a global reach, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals is headquartered in Nanning, with over ten branches and subsidiaries under its management. The company manages (including entrusted) assets of more than RMB 12 billion and employs more than 6,600 people. It has formed a full industrial chain covering "exploration, mining, selection, smelting and processing", and its tin smelting ranks among the world's top five producers. Huaxi Nonferrous Metals enjoys unique resource endowments. Its core mining clusters (Tongkeng Mine, Gaofeng Tin-Antimony Mine, Wuji Lead-Antimony Mine, Fozichong Lead-Zinc Mine, etc.) have proven reserves of six minerals – tin, antimony, indium, zinc, lead and silver – all ranking first in Guangxi, among which the recoverable resources of tin, antimony and indium key metals are among the world's top tier. Relying on strong technological innovation and green transformation capabilities, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals has built one of the country's first demonstration bases for comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, a national demonstration base for comprehensive utilization of indium, tin and antimony resources, and an intelligent mining demonstration slope with unmanned operation in hazardous areas. Huaxi Nonferrous Metals is deeply engaged in the high-end manufacturing sector. Its leading products include tin ingots, antimony ingots, indium ingots, lead ingots, zinc ingots, precious metals and other basic metal products, as well as high-purity metals, solders, alloys and other high-end new materials, which are widely used in strategic emerging industries such as new energy, photovoltaics, AI chips, aerospace, and intelligent equipment. The "Jinhai Brand" tin ingot is registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the London Metal Exchange, and its product quality is highly recognized by the industry. In the future, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will continue to deepen the full industrial chain layout, strengthen resource security and technology upgrading, promote the application of key metals in high-end manufacturing, consolidate its leading position in the industry, and provide a safety guarantee for the key metals needed by the country.
Asian Metal: At the beginning of 2026, the first provincial-level key metal group in China – Guangxi Key Metals Group – was formally established, and Huaxi Nonferrous Metals was incorporated as its core listed platform. What substantive changes has this brought to Huaxi Nonferrous Metals' strategic positioning and development path? In the future, what position does Huaxi Nonferrous Metals hope to occupy in China's and even the global key metal industry landscape, and through what paths will it achieve this goal?
Mr. Zhang: The establishment of Key Metals Group is an important measure for Guangxi to strategically integrate its key metal resources. As its core listed platform, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will undertake the strategic mission of leading the optimization of Guangxi's entire key metal industrial chain. Huaxi Nonferrous Metals is committed to becoming a guarantor of China's key metal supply chain and an important participant in the global high-end materials sector. We will achieve this through the following paths: First, strengthen resource control. Leveraging the group's integration advantages, deepen the construction of domestic resource bases, expand cooperation on overseas strategic resources, and build a diversified, stable and sustainable supply system for key metals. Second, focus on high-end manufacturing and green transformation, increase R&D investment in deep processing areas such as semiconductor packaging materials, metals for new energy applications, and special alloys, promote low-carbon and intelligent upgrading of smelting technologies, and increase product added value through technological barriers. Third, build an industrial ecosystem collaboration platform, form a closed-loop industrial chain from minerals to materials through the linkage of resources, technology and markets within the group, and explore innovative services such as supply chain finance and trading platforms to enhance industry influence. Fourth, promote standard and brand output, take the lead in formulating industry standards for green production and recycling of key metals, build a responsible supply chain brand, and enhance our discourse power in the global industrial chain. Through these paths, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will gradually achieve the transition from a "resource-based enterprise" to a "technology-driven global industrial platform", providing solid support for the self-sufficiency and high-quality development of China's key metal industry.
Asian Metal: Currently, the global tin ore supply faces multiple disruptions. Myanmar's Wa State is advancing comprehensive resumption of production; in the first two months of 2026, Myanmar's tin concentrate exports to China surged 175% year-on-year. Indonesia has extended its ban on unprocessed tin ore exports until the end of 2026, and its 2026 tin ore quota is only 60,000 tons, lower than market expectations of 70,000-80,000 tons. The geopolitical situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains complex. How does Huaxi Nonferrous Metals assess the global tin ore supply situation in 2026? What measures will the company take to ensure a stable supply of raw materials?
Mr. Zhang: The global tin ore supply situation in 2026 generally presents a "tight balance" pattern, with supply-side disturbances and incremental supply coexisting, but structural contradictions remain prominent. The resumption of production in Myanmar's Wa State is driving a short-term supply rebound, but uncertainties remain regarding local policies and transportation stability. Indonesia continues its structural tightening; the extension of the export ban and the lower-than-expected quota will further exacerbate global concentrate supply shortages, supporting the medium- to long-term tin price center. Geopolitical risks in Africa persist, and political and operational uncertainties in emerging resource regions like the DRC make it difficult to form a stable supply supplement in the short term. To ensure a stable supply of raw materials, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will take the following measures: First, deepen diversified resource allocation. While consolidating traditional resource cooperation, we will accelerate the expansion into emerging resource regions such as Africa and Central Asia to build a more balanced global resource network. Second, strengthen long-term contracts and strategic inventory mechanisms. We will sign medium- and long-term procurement agreements with major miners and establish a dynamic raw material reserve to smooth short-term supply fluctuations. Third, enhance resource comprehensive utilization capabilities. We will continue to increase investment in recovery technologies for complex ores, associated ores, tailings and recycled tin to improve raw material adaptability and self-sufficiency resilience. Fourth, promote a "technology + resource" cooperation model. By exporting green mining, low-carbon smelting technologies and project management experience, we will establish closer production capacity ties with resource-rich countries, enhancing supply chain stickiness. We believe that through optimizing resource distribution, deepening technology empowerment, and building a circular system, we can continuously consolidate our supply chain leadership amidst changes and promote higher quality, more efficient and more sustainable development.
Asian Metal: The downstream demand structure for tin is undergoing profound changes. Traditional tin solder areas are being driven by the recovery of the semiconductor industry, while new energy applications – especially the application of tin in solid-state battery anode materials – is moving from the laboratory to industrialization. Recently, a team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a new alloy anode composed of indium, tin and bismuth, achieving fast charging in under 10 minutes for all-solid-state batteries. Does this mean that tin will play an even more critical role in next-generation battery technologies? What is Huaxi Nonferrous Metals' forecast for the growth of emerging applications of tin?
Mr. Zhang: The innovative application of tin in next-generation energy technologies such as solid-state batteries is opening up new imagination space for its demand growth. We are also paying high attention to developments in this field. Recent breakthroughs like the indium-tin-bismuth alloy anode indicate that tin-based materials, with their moderate potential, high theoretical capacity and good interfacial stability, show unique potential in solving core bottlenecks such as fast charging and cycle life in solid-state batteries. Tin's role in next-generation battery technologies is moving from a "supporting role" to "one of the leading roles", but industrialization will still take time. We have the following thoughts on the emerging application demand for tin: First, solid-state batteries will become an important growth pole for tin demand. If relevant alloy anode technologies achieve large-scale application, the solid-state battery sector alone is expected to contribute significant incremental demand in the next 5-10 years, and this demand is characterized by high added value and high technical barriers. Second, traditional and emerging areas will see demand. The recovery of semiconductor solders, combined with demand from photovoltaic ribbons and AI advanced packaging, will support the basic tin consumption market; frontier fields such as solid-state batteries and perovskite photovoltaics will provide flexible growth space. Third, material innovation will drive demand structure upgrading. Tin demand growth will increasingly rely on material formulation and process innovations (such as alloying and nano-sizing), rather than simply volume expansion. Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will closely follow technological developments and actively design in related fields to seize the opportunities brought by changes in tin demand structure.
Asian Metal: At the end of 2025, Guangxi issued the "Several Policy Measures to Support High-Quality Development of the Key Metals Industry", which explicitly proposes a series of supportive policies including intensifying exploration of key metal minerals, strengthening technological innovation, and supporting industrial chain extension. How will Huaxi Nonferrous Metals make good use of these policy dividends to accelerate key projects such as the Tongkeng mining area tin-zinc ore development project and the Gaofeng 100+105 orebody deep mining project? When are these projects expected to start contributing incremental production?
Mr. Zhang: The issuance of Guangxi's "Several Policy Measures to Support High-Quality Development of the Key Metals Industry" provides strong policy support for Huaxi Nonferrous Metals to accelerate the implementation of key projects and industrial chain upgrading. The Gaofeng Company 100+105 orebody deep mining project is a core incremental driver; upon completion, the project will increase ore production capacity by 30%. The Tongkeng mining area tin-zinc ore development project has achieved milestone progress, with deep exploration rights successfully converted into mining rights, and production scale will be significantly improved. With the development of deep high-quality resources in the two major mines, the company's production base of tin, antimony, zinc and other multi-metals is expected to further increase, and resource endowments are being rapidly converted into performance certainty.
Asian Metal: In terms of industrial chain extension, does the company have specific plans to expand into higher value-added areas such as tin-based new materials and high-purity metals?
Mr. Zhang: In the area of basic raw materials, Huaxi Nonferrous Metals is planning and carrying out research on short-process, low-energy, green preparation technologies for the purification of seven key metals used in semiconductors: 7N indium, tin, gallium, tellurium, antimony, zinc and cadmium. In collaboration with research institutes, we are also planning pilot and industrial demonstration lines for high-purity metal single crystals such as germanium and gallium oxide single crystals, to form standardized production processes and quality control systems. We have successfully developed and produced 7N high-purity indium and other metals, and have achieved phased breakthroughs in the technical bottlenecks of ultra-high purity tin purification.
Asian Metal: How do you view the current and future global tin market supply and demand landscape? Against the backdrop of persistent supply-side disruptions and demand driven by new energy and semiconductor industries, what is your judgment on the medium- to long-term trend of tin prices? How will Huaxi Nonferrous Metals seize the opportunities in this industry cycle?
Mr. Zhang: The current global tin market supply and demand landscape is characterized by a "tight balance". Supply-side disruptions persist. On the demand side, driven by new energy and semiconductor industries, tin prices are expected to fluctuate upward in the medium to long term. On the supply side, global tin ore resources are scarce, with a static reserve-to-production ratio of only 14-16 years, and frequent disturbances in major producing regions. Although Myanmar's Wa State is promoting resumption of production, declining grades and transportation constraints mean actual incremental supply is limited. Indonesia has extended its export ban and implemented floating tariffs, strengthening expectations of supply contraction. Geopolitical conflicts in the DRC continue, making the supply chain fragile. Although new production capacity will be released in 2026, overall supply elasticity is insufficient, and tight mine supply remains the core contradiction. On the demand side, tin solders account for over 50% of consumption. AI computing infrastructure, advanced packaging, new energy vehicles and the photovoltaic industry are becoming major growth engines, collectively supporting structural expansion of tin demand. Although traditional consumer electronics growth is slowing, demand from emerging sectors remains resilient. Against this backdrop, tin prices are expected to maintain a high-level fluctuating upward trend in the medium to long term. The center of tin prices in the second half of 2026 is expected to be in the range of RMB 350,000-400,000/ton. In the short term, influenced by the progress of Myanmar's resumption of production, implementation of Indonesian policies and macro sentiment, periodic corrections may occur, but the supply-demand gap and low inventory levels will provide strong support.
Asian Metal: 2026 is the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and also the first full year after Huaxi Nonferrous Metals was integrated into Guangxi Key Metals Group. What are the company's medium- to long-term strategic plans in terms of resource development, industrial chain extension, and technological innovation?
Mr. Xiaoning Zhang: Huaxi Nonferrous Metals will focus on resource security, technology upgrading and industrial chain extension. We will strengthen domestic resource exploration and overseas equity mine layout, improve raw material self-sufficiency; increase R&D investment in high-end applications such as tin-based new materials, high-purity tin, and solid-state battery anodes; promote tailings treatment, tin recycling and green circular economy to reduce dependence on primary ores and enhance supply chain resilience and competitiveness.
Asian Metal: Thank you again, Mr. Zhang, for accepting this interview invitation. We believe that in the new year, the company will achieve remarkable results in areas such as overseas equity mine layout, technology upgrading and industrial chain extension.
Mr. Zhang: Thank you to Asian Metal. We also hope to leverage the platform's advantages to enhance mutual exchange and strive for win-win outcomes.
