This week, the operating rate of brass billet producers fell by 1.8 percentage points MoM to 49%. The traditional consumption off-season, coupled with tightening international trade conditions, has limited downstream export demand, causing a continuous decline in enterprise orders. Some small enterprises have been forced to suspend production and grant holidays. Additionally, the soaring copper prices have driven up production costs, prompting downstream enterprises to adopt a large amount of alternative materials such as stainless steel, further compressing the market space for brass billets. Enterprises have also been continuously reducing their own inventories. The days of raw material inventories of SMM samples fell by 0.64 days MoM to 4.4 days, and the days of finished product inventories decreased by 0.14 days MoM to 6.66 days. SMM predicts that, affected by weak demand and high copper prices, the operating rate of brass billet producers will decline by another 1.15 percentage points next week to 47.85%, and the industry's pressure will be difficult to alleviate in the short term.