[Weak Demand During Off-Season Drags Down Industry Performance, Operating Rates of Brass Billet Producers Continue to Decline]: According to SMM data, the operating rate of brass billet producers fell to 52.53% this week, down 2.5 percentage points WoW, highlighting the characteristics of the off-season. From the demand side, orders in the refrigeration sector continued to weaken, and the new energy sector (especially solar-related orders) 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 high copper prices. Looking ahead to next week, it is expected that the operating rate will continue its downward trend, declining by another 0.83 percentage points WoW to 51.69%, given that end-use demand is unlikely to improve substantially. The industry will remain under pressure in the short term.