Copper rod producers operate at close to 80% in Mar

SHANGHAI, Apr 16 (SMM) – Operating rates at Chinese copper rod producers jumped to 79.4% in March, up 10.05 percentage points year on year and 31.73 percentage points on the month, as orders improved from the electric wire and cable industry, according to an SMM survey.

In April, operating rates are expected to further increase to 80.9% as producers reported brisk orders during the high season. Some large producers said they had already reached full operations in March.

Demand for copper rods produced with copper cathode improved as products produced from scrap lost its advantage as the price between copper cathode and scrap continued to shrink. Downstream buyers were also driven to build stock last month as SHFE copper prices plunged.

The ratio of raw material inventories to total production dipped to 11.2% in March, down 8.62 percentage points on the month, as output grew with higher operating rates.

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