End-use demand was overall mediocre, and the operating rate of wire and cable continued to decline [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

This week (July 10–July 16) the SMM copper wire and cable enterprise operating rate recorded 68.96%, down 1.88 percentage points WoW and down 3.94 percentage points YoY. Industry production loads continued to weaken. During the week, copper prices kept climbing, suppressing downstream willingness to sign new orders. Coupled with the traditional consumption off-season, overall end-use demand was weak, and market order performance was generally mediocre. Demand across sub-sectors mostly lacked highlights, with only State Grid orders being released steadily. Rising copper prices drove some end-users to place rush-buy replenishment retail orders, providing bottom support for this week’s operating rate. On the inventory side, affected by high copper prices and the futures monthly spread structure, wire and cable enterprises’ willingness to stockpile raw materials remained subdued, with raw material inventories down 3.13% WoW. Rising copper prices prompted downstream end-users to pick up goods in phases to chase prices; end-users concentrated on consuming on-hand finished product supplies, sending finished product inventories down 1.89% WoW. Looking ahead to next week, the traditional demand off-season is not yet over, and the end-use market shows no signs of recovery. SMM expects next week (July 10–July 16) the copper wire and cable operating rate will continue to decline by 1.56 percentage points WoW to 67.4%, and by 3.43 percentage points YoY.