Since 2025, the aluminum round head screw industry has been in a dual-driven cycle of "cost-push + demand-pull". With the LME aluminum price breaking through $2,900 per ton and reaching a four-year high, the main force of Shanghai aluminum has stabilized at 21,000 yuan per ton. As a basic component, aluminum round head screws are not only facing the pressure of rising raw material prices but also encountering high-end development opportunities driven by the new energy industry. The industry shows obvious structural differentiation characteristics.
The rigid support from the cost side has become the primary variable in the industry. The global supply of electrolytic aluminum is approaching the capacity ceiling. Under the domestic policy red line of 45 million tons, the utilization rate of operating capacity has reached 96%, and new capacity can only rely on equivalent replacement. On the bauxite supply side, the 29% global supply disruption caused by Guinea's election cycle has further magnified the vulnerability of the supply chain. In terms of terminal products, the purchase price of ordinary M3-M6 specification aluminum round head screws has risen by 12% cumulatively within the year. Some small and medium-sized manufacturers have been forced to exit the market due to cost pressure, and the industry is accelerating its clearance.
Structural upgrades on the demand side open up value space. The new energy vehicle and photovoltaic industries have become the core growth engines. Each new energy vehicle uses 50 to 80 kilograms more aluminum than a fuel vehicle, driving a sharp increase in the demand for high-strength aluminum round head screws. These 10.9-grade products, which are used to fix battery packs and motors, are 3 to 5 times more expensive than ordinary models. In the photovoltaic field, 1GW of modules consume 11,000 tons of aluminum. Among the 6 million tons of aluminum demand brought about by the global new installations in 2025, aluminum round head screws account for 8%, and there is a significant gap in weather-resistant products mainly used for bracket fixation.
Technological innovation is breaking through the bottlenecks in the development of industries. The low-pressure casting technology developed by the Norwegian Hydro Company has achieved a breakthrough. It can directly cast aluminum bolts with high surface quality without the extrusion process, increasing production efficiency by 30% and reducing raw material waste by nearly half. This technology has been piloted in the application of aluminum round head screws for automotive suspensions. Domestic enterprises are focusing on upgrading environmental protection processes. The usage rate of chromium-free zinc-based coatings exceeds 60%, and the graphene composite coating technology has doubled the salt spray resistance of products, helping export enterprises break through the carbon tariff barriers of the European Union.
The market pattern shows a regional feature of "accumulation in the east and shortage in the west". The East China region concentrates 53% of the national production capacity of aluminum round head screws, but it mainly produces mid-to-low-end products, with an inventory turnover period of 47 days. However, the demand for new energy bases in the northwest has soared. Local supply can only meet 40% of the demand, and cross-regional transportation has increased logistics costs by 18.6%. Leading enterprises have initiated layout adjustments. Jinyi Industrial and others have built new production bases in Hubei and Shaanxi, focusing on meeting the high-end demands of wind power and photovoltaic projects.
In the face of industry transformation, enterprises need to grasp the direction of "high-end, regional and green". On the one hand, it enters the new energy supply chain through material upgrading and process innovation; on the other hand, it relies on the production capacity layout in the central and western regions to closely meet the demand market. As the aluminum price center remains anchored in the range of 21,000 to 23,000 yuan per ton for a long time, enterprises with self-sufficiency in resources or cost advantages in green electricity will take the leading position in the value reconstruction of aluminum round head screws.