Holiday Shutdowns Drag Operating Rate Pullback; Wire and Cable Operating Rate to Decline Further Next Week [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

Published: Sep 30, 2026 14:48 (GMT+8)

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This week (September 25-October 1), the operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises recorded 62.13%, down 7.23 percentage points WoW. The decline in the operating rate this period was mainly disrupted by the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. According to the SMM survey, domestic wire and cable enterprises had an average National Day holiday of 2.07 days, and the shutdown period was concentrated in the early part of the holiday, dragging down overall production load. In terms of inventory, as the holiday approached, pre-holiday stockpiling by wire and cable enterprises basically came to an end, with raw material inventories down 2.76% MoM; meanwhile, some enterprises moderately built up finished products to ensure subsequent order delivery, driving finished product inventories up 1.82% MoM. Looking ahead to next week (October 2-October 8), the National Day holiday shutdown will continue to affect enterprise production schedules. SMM expects the operating rate of copper wire and cable to fall 3.97 percentage points WoW to 58.16% next week, down 0.47 percentage points YoY.

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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