Falling copper prices fail to reverse the downtrend in brass billet orders, and operating rates may rise slightly next week [SMM Weekly Review of Brass Billet Market]

       According to SMM data, the operating rates of brass billet producers continued to decline this week, dropping by 0.19 percentage points MoM to 48.81%. Copper prices fell significantly this week due to tariff impacts, but brass billet producers reported no substantial growth in downstream orders, with only a slight increase in orders observed over 1-2 days. The days of raw material inventories for SMM samples decreased by 0.23 days MoM to 4.17 days, while the days of finished product inventories decreased by 0.08 days MoM to 6.58 days.

       Looking ahead to next week, SMM analysis suggests that given the difficulty in improving downstream demand in the short term, coupled with copper prices stabilizing, if copper prices rebound next week, it may drive an increase in orders due to the downstream "rush to buy amid continuous price rise and hold back amid price downturn" mentality, but the increase is expected to be limited. The main reason is that when copper prices have been volatile recently, the price fluctuations of brass billets have been relatively small, and downstream customers have shown moderate acceptance, making it difficult for orders to change significantly. Overall, SMM expects the weekly operating rates of brass billet producers to rebound slightly by 0.51 percentage points next week to 49.32%.