Chilean Mine Union Approves New Contract, Ending Strike and Resuming Production

China will enter Lunar New Year holidays next week, with logistics and scrap traders suspending operations, ending pre-holiday restocking. As the world’s largest copper scrap consumer steps back, demand across Asia has weakened. South Korea has seen clearer pressure, with No.2 scrap discounts falling from around 90% to 88%–89%. Japan, without a holiday shutdown, shows only a mild adjustment of about 0.5% in discounts.

[SMM Analysis: China’s Holiday Pause Cools Asian Copper Scrap Market; Recovery Uncertain] As the world’s largest consumer of copper scrap, China’s temporary withdrawal from the market has directly weakened overall demand across Asia. Regional buying interest has quickly faded, and the market has shifted from a state of “active inquiries and transactions” to one of “quoted prices but limited deals,” leading to a visible pullback in scrap trading prices across several markets.

During the week of January 30 to February 5, the operating rate of the enamelled wire industry rose slightly by 0.47 percentage points WoW to 83.8%, continuing to fluctuate at highs. Although orders pulled back by 3.55 percentage points WoW as the Chinese New Year approached, most enterprises operated at full capacity and maintained a normal production pace, supported by concentrated order placements from the previous week, strong orders from end-user home appliance clients, and a tight production schedule for pending orders. As the Chinese New Year holiday approaches, the industry will gradually begin holidays starting next Wednesday, and the operating rate is expected to pull back to 72.93%.