Copper Prices Remain High, Weekly Operating Rate of Copper Wire and Cable Industry Falls More Than Expected [[SMM] Weekly Review of Wire and Cable Market]

        This week (April 25-May 1), the operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises stood at 89.45%, down 1.78 percentage points WoW, up 14.69 percentage points YoY, and 4.36 percentage points lower than the expected operating rate. The operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises this week fell significantly short of expectations, with persistently high copper prices being the main factor affecting customers' order placement. A major enterprise in the sample indicated that customer purchasing enthusiasm significantly decreased when copper prices exceeded 77,500 yuan/mt. Despite the upcoming Labour Day holiday, the volume of new orders this week was not substantial, and downstream customers' sentiment towards stockpiling was moderate. Additionally, as some customers had locked in copper prices in early April, some copper wire and cable enterprises believed that the order growth in early April was a prepayment for subsequent orders. Therefore, the operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises failed to achieve continuous growth this week. From an inventory perspective, the raw material inventory of copper wire and cable sample enterprises this week reached 19,070 mt, up 10.74% WoW, with some wire and cable enterprises stockpiling a small amount of inventory before the Labour Day holiday. Finished product inventories stood at 17,720 mt, up 1.37% WoW. Next week will mark the Labour Day holiday. SMM learned that some small and medium-sized enterprises in the sample plan to implement production cuts and adjust work schedules. Therefore, SMM expects that the operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises will decline by 1.99 percentage points WoW to 87.46% next week (May 2-8), up 4.62 percentage points YoY.