SHANGHAI, May 26 (SMM) – According to the General Administration of Customs, China exported 200,000 mt of copper wire and cable in April 2022, up 1.7% YoY and 17.6% MoM. A total of 740,000 mt were exported from January to April 2022, up 10.5% YoY.

In 2022, China's wire and cable products are mainly exported to Southeast Asia, Africa, North America and Western Europe, with exports to Asia market accounting for about 55% of the total trade amount, North America 20%, Europe 15%. The exports are mainly low value-added products with considerably price spread with similar products in Europe and the United States.

China's wire and cable exports maintained high growth in January-April 2022, but the growth rate has slowed down. And the cumulative year-on-year growth has already peaked. The main reasons why China's wire and cable exports are currently maintaining an upward trend are as follows.

① Domestic copper wire and cable export orders are placed by developing countries in Southeast Asia. On the one hand, most countries in Southeast Asia react negatively to the COVID-19 pandemic, while actively resuming work and production during COVID outbreak. Hence power grid construction progress accelerated. On the other hand, the re-distribution of international industries have generated greater demand for copper wire and cable with low-end manufacturing being substituted.

② Ocean freight has fallen back and the cost of export has decreased, with buyers and sellers becoming more motivated.

③ The low SHFE/LME copper price ration from January to April greatly stimulated domestic exports.

SMM expects both the YoY and MoM growth rate of copper wire and cable exports to slow down in May mainly due to the overseas pandemic, high inflation and geopolitical conflicts that dragged down the export orders to the European market. Secondly, according to SMM understanding, most of the wire and cable export orders are priced on SHFE copper as the benchmark. As copper prices fell in early May, overseas customers increased their orders, but most of these orders will be delivered in June or July. And domestic enterprises generally hold a bearish outlook of the market, and are not in a hurry to produce. In addition, in late April, the SHFE/LME price ratio began to rise and hit a yearly high, constraining some of the export orders tha