Chinese Wire and Cable Firms See Longer Holidays Amid High Copper Prices and Weak Demand
According to an SMM survey, sample wire and cable enterprises in China had an average holiday of 2.07 days, the same as last year. However, last year featured an 8-day combined National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, while this year's National Day holiday was 7 days, reducing the statistical baseline by 1 day. This means the relative duration of shutdowns and holidays actually arranged by enterprises increased. Constrained by high copper prices and high premiums, coupled with weak end-use demand, enterprises showed weak willingness to stockpile before the holiday, mostly purchasing as needed and reducing advance stockpiling to avoid inventory depreciation risks. Leading wire and cable enterprises mostly maintained production or made minor production cuts to ensure delivery, while small and medium-sized enterprises flexibly adjusted production based on orders.