The recovery of operating rates of copper cathode rod producers fell short of expectations, and the inventory buildup of finished products highlighted weak demand [SMM Weekly Review of Copper Cathode Rod Production]

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       Copper cathode rod: The weekly operating rate of major domestic copper cathode rod enterprises (from July 4 to July 10) rebounded to 67.00%, up 3.26 percentage points MoM, 4.56 percentage points lower than the expected value, and down 0.69 percentage points YoY. After experiencing production cuts and shutdowns last week, copper cathode rod enterprises resumed production one after another this week. However, due to the lack of improvement in new orders in the market, destocking pressure still exists, and the pace of production resumptions at copper cathode rod enterprises fell short of expectations. From the perspective of specific inventory, with the recovery of the operating rate, the raw material inventory of copper cathode rod enterprises increased by 5.39% MoM this week, reaching 35,200 mt. Under the influence of weak downstream consumption, the finished product inventory of copper cathode rod enterprises increased by 5.07% MoM this week, reaching 68,400 mt. Looking ahead, although the center of copper prices has dropped significantly this week, there is no obvious MoM growth in actual market consumption. It is expected that the operating rate will continue to rise to 74.57% next week (from July 11 to July 17), up 7.58 percentage points MoM and 1.71 percentage points YoY. However, due to the impact of the off-season and the stabilization of copper prices, consumption remains weak, and the destocking pressure of copper cathode rods is difficult to alleviate. It is expected that the weekly operating rate of enterprises will be difficult to meet expectations and maintain an upward trend within the month.