High Copper Prices Suppress Order Release, Post-Holiday Production Pace Falls Short of Expectations [SMM Enamelled Wire Market Weekly Review]

       During the week of October 3-9, the overall performance of the enamelled wire industry fell short of expectations. The machine operating rate pulled back by 6.4 percentage points compared to pre-holiday levels, dropping to 71.33%, while new orders also declined significantly by 15.69 percentage points. According to SMM, during the National Day holiday, enamelled wire enterprises reduced or suspended production based on order volumes, leading to an expected pullback in the operating rate. Although most enterprises resumed production on October 7 after the holiday, downstream customers exhibited strong wait-and-see sentiment due to the unexpected surge in copper prices, resulting in a slower-than-expected recovery in the production pace. Inventory side, the days of inventories for finished products rebounded to 10.53 days this week, attributed to limited pickup volume from downstream customers during the holiday and a slowdown in cargo pick-up pace coupled with weakened ordering willingness under high copper price pressure, keeping the industry's days of inventories for finished products at relatively high levels. Overall, the enamelled wire industry remains in a downturn, with demand showing no signs of improvement amid high copper prices. SMM expects the machine operating rate in the industry to only rebound to 76% next week.