According to SMM, the comprehensive operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry in August 2026 was 73.39%, down 1.15 percentage points MoM and up 7.51 percentage points YoY.Among them, the operating rate of large enterprises was 83.22%, medium-sized enterprises 55.46%, and small enterprises 64.95%.
In August, the copper plate/sheet and strip industry was constrained by both high copper prices and the consumption off-season, with the operating rate edging down, though the YoY performance remained moderate.This month, as the traditional consumption off-season for copper plate/sheet and strip, product differentiation within the industry was pronounced. End-use demand from computing power and energy storage, new energy supporting facilities, transformers, and integrated circuits was generally strong, providing solid rigid demand support for copper plate/sheet and strip, with copper strip and alloy plate/sheet and strip both benefiting. Among them, copper strip showed a stronger-than-usual off-season. Although high copper prices suppressed downstream procurement and new orders contracted somewhat, with the market even seeing price-cutting competition for orders, enterprises organized production based on previously received orders, with orders on hand mostly covering production through mid-to-late September, indicating that rigid demand remained resilient. Downstream demand for alloy plate/sheet and strip was impressive, with most enterprises maintaining full production. In contrast, for brass strip and bronze strip, end-use demand in the off-season was already weak, and coupled with tight supply of tax-invoiced copper scrap raw materials, some enterprises opted for production cuts.
On the inventory side, supply of copper plate/sheet and strip in the market was ample in August, with most enterprises' inventories returning to reasonable ranges.SMM data showed that finished product inventory days in the copper plate/sheet and strip industry in August stood at 5.49 days, up 0.08 days MoM, with overall industry inventory still at normal levels.
SMM expects the comprehensive operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry in September to be 73.54%, up 0.15 percentage points MoM and up 7.52 percentage points YoY.In September, the traditional off-season is drawing to a close, and the market holds expectations of demand strengthening. Copper strip is supported by previously accumulated orders, with ample production schedules. Brass strip and bronze strip are expected to see marginal demand improvement, but remain constrained by tight supply of tax-invoiced copper scrap raw materials, with enterprise production schedules expected to edge up only slightly. Overall, rigid demand from computing power and energy storage, new energy, transformers, and integrated circuits provides bottom support, but high copper prices also have a phased impact on demand and will continue to suppress the release of new orders. SMM comprehensively expects the industry operating rate in September to edge up, with YoY growth remaining at a relatively high level.
