According to SMM data, the operating rates of brass billet producers this week reached 49.87%, increasing by 0.99 percentage points MoM. This was mainly due to the decline in copper prices at the end of last week, which boosted production enthusiasm among enterprises and led to a slight increase in production this week. In terms of inventory, SMM sample data continued to show a dual decline, with days of raw material inventories decreasing by 0.04 day WoW to 3.7 days, indicating a relatively low level of raw material reserves. Days of finished product inventories decreased by 0.15 day MoM to 5.99 days.
Looking ahead to next week, SMM expects the weekly operating rates of brass billet producers to decrease by 0.12 percentage point MoM to 49.74%. This is primarily because the market is still in the traditional off-season, with weak end-use consumption. Meanwhile, the tight supply of raw materials also imposes certain constraints on production. However, as the off-season gradually comes to an end, there are expectations for a recovery in demand in August. SMM expects overall orders in August to be better than those in July, so the decline in operating rates this week is expected to be relatively limited.
