Weak demand during the off-season dragged down industry performance, with operating rates of copper billet producers continuing to decline [SMM Weekly Review of Copper Billet Market]

       According to data from SMM, the operating rates of brass billet producers fell to 52.53% this week, down 2.5 percentage points WoW, indicating a pronounced off-season characteristic. From the demand side, orders in the refrigeration sector continued to weaken, and the new energy sector (especially orders related to solar energy) saw a significant contraction. Coupled with the fact that downstream stocking demand before the Dragon Boat Festival fell short of expectations, enterprises generally faced the dilemma of insufficient orders. Currently, the industry is mostly maintaining low inventory operations, with days of raw material inventories decreasing by 0.6 days WoW to 4.7 days, and days of finished product inventories decreasing by 1.11 days WoW to 6.07 days, reflecting the cautious mindset of enterprises amid copper prices fluctuating at highs. Looking ahead to next week, given that end-use demand is unlikely to improve substantially, it is expected that the operating rate will continue its downward trend, declining by another 0.83 percentage points WoW to 51.69%, and the industry will remain under pressure in the short term.