SHANGHAI, Jun. 24 (SMM) – Utilization rate at China’s copper tube/pipe producers fell by 2.12 percentage points on the month to 87.32% in May, marking its first MoM drop this year, SMM’s survey indicates.
Facility repair at one large company affected tube/pipe production in May, and the repair will continue into June. Moreover, huge inventories caused China’s air-conditioner output growth to slow to a mere 2.4% January-May, dampening air-conditioning pipe demand.
That said, orders for marine pipes were robust, so producers of such pipes were mostly running at capacity.
Heading into June, 40% of companies surveyed said that the low demand season and excess inventories at distributors caused their orders to fall.
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