North American Scrap Copper Prices Largely Decline

[SMM Shanghai Spot Copper] Looking ahead to tomorrow, Shanghai spot copper discounts are expected to continue a steady recovery trend. From the market structure perspective, the price spread between futures contracts for the next-month and C contracts continues to narrow slightly, and suppliers’ willingness to ship to delivery warehouses continues to decline. Supply side, domestic copper and previously price-locked imported cargoes continue to arrive, and with social inventory at a high level, overall circulating supply in the market remains ample. Demand side, downstream enterprises continue to advance work and production resumptions, and with SHFE copper futures prices having declined somewhat recently, downstream purchase willingness to buy the dip has increased; order activity has risen, providing support for spot discounts. Overall, Shanghai spot copper is expected to maintain stable trading activity tomorrow.

March is the traditional peak season for the enamelled wire industry, and enterprises are generally optimistic about subsequent orders. Enterprises reported that the release of orders in the home appliance sector has been quite strong; current orders on hand are sufficient, and some models are in a tight “insufficient supply to fulfill shipments” situation. In addition, orders in the NEV and power transformer sectors also remained steady. Based on the current production schedule for orders, the operating rate of the enamelled wire industry is expected to rebound to 74.45 in March.