Brass Billet Production Resumption Basically Completed, Demand Picking Up Slowly [SMM Brass Billet Market Weekly Review]

After the Lantern Festival, brass billet enterprises basically fully resumed work and production, driving the industry operating rate this week (2.27-3.5) up 26.1 percentage points MoM to 43.23%. However, overall market performance remained cautious. As downstream sectors such as hardware and sanitary ware resumed work and production slowly, new orders were limited, leading to weak stockpiling sentiment among enterprises. This week, days of raw material inventories at sampled enterprises only held at a mid-to-low level of 4.29 days, while days of finished product inventories were 5.19 days, also at a mid-level. This reflected that the industry was still in a wait-and-see phase amid destocking, with overall trading activity average. Looking ahead to next week (3.6-3.12), as the traditional peak consumption season approaches and downstream further resumes work, new orders are expected to increase gradually. SMM expected the operating rate to rise 2.69 percentage points MoM to 45.92%, and market activity was expected to improve.