Some Enterprises Take Early Holidays, Operating Rates Decline [SMM Galvanizing Weekly Review]

SMM, September 24: This week, operating rates of galvanising producers stood at 53.39%, down 1.1 percentage points WoW. Raw material side, galvanising enterprises made limited new zinc ingot purchases this week, mainly drawing on previously priced material. As zinc ingots arrived successively, enterprise raw material inventory increased somewhat, but new restocking demand remained limited. Demand side, actual end-user consumption improvement was limited recently, with no notable performance from the traditional peak season and no significant order growth yet. Some downstream enterprises have begun arranging the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in advance, and construction and procurement pace at some end-user projects slowed down. Galvanising enterprises received insufficient new orders, and production schedules declined accordingly. Next week, affected by the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, most enterprises will take 1-3 days off. Combined with the National Day holiday, industry operating rates are expected to fall to 38.71%.