SHANGHAI, Mar. 5 (SMM) – The latest SMM survey of 21 major Chinese electric wire and cable producers revealed the following insights with regard to their March orders:
Based on the survey, SMM expects the average operating rate at these producers at 72.53% in March.
The survey showed 85% of electric wire and cable producers believe that their orders will increase in March. In their views, electric wire and cable orders dropped in February due to the Chinese New Year holiday factor and seasonally low demand period, but should increase during March as consumption recovers gradually. Furthermore, some enameled wire producers said enameled wire consumption has entered peak demand period, which will be reflected more pronounced during March.
However, 10% of producers anticipate that their March orders will hold flat with February levels. First, as these producers still conducted normal production during the Chinese New Year holiday, their orders did not decrease in February. Second, cold weather has yet to improve noticeably in north China, so construction projects remain slow, with most downstream companies failing to conduct bidding projects with the State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid.
The remaining 5% of Chinese electric wire and cable producers SMM interviewed are pessimistic over the outlook. They said risk events during March will exacerbate volatility in copper prices and depress downstream consumers' interest in placing orders. In addition, current electric wire and cable orders remain low.
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