Copper Prices Pulled Back and Orders Recovered, Operating Rate of Copper Wire and Cable Producers Edged Up WoW [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

      This week (Nov 14-20), the operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises was 65.68%, up 1.32 percentage points MoM but down 24.62 percentage points YoY. During the period, copper prices fell below 86,000 yuan/mt, improving downstream acceptance of prices and gradually rebounding market orders. However, some downstream enterprises remained cautious due to concerns over further weakness in copper prices. By sector, orders across all industries showed a slow rebound, with the consistently stable automotive wiring harness sector continuing its positive performance. Inventory side, enterprises took advantage of low prices to restock, increasing the raw material inventory/output ratio by 1.02 percentage points to 13,805 mt. Meanwhile, as new orders recovered, finished product inventories destocked accordingly, with the finished product inventory/output ratio dropping 1.16 percentage points to 18,700 mt. Looking ahead to next week, as the final week of November, most enterprises plan to raise operating rates for a month-end push. SMM expects the operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises to rebound to 67.2% next week (Nov 21-27).