Just-in-time procurement dominates market trends, copper wire and cable operating rates stabilize with an increase [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

      This week (December 12-December 18), the operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises stood at 66.71%, up 0.41 percentage points MoM and down 20.02 percentage points YoY. This week, industry orders have not seen substantial improvement. As the year-end approaches, most enterprises have shifted their focus to capital recovery, with production schedules advancing in an orderly manner based on the delivery dates of existing orders, maintaining overall stability with relatively small fluctuations, and the industry has entered the year-end wrap-up phase. From an industry-specific perspective, demand showed a mediocre performance, with all sectors primarily engaging in just-in-time procurement, without significant restocking demand or signals of incremental procurement. Regarding inventory, after copper prices stabilized, some enterprises expect a slight correction in copper prices at the beginning of next year, so raw material procurement is primarily based on just-in-time needs. This week, the raw material inventory ratio decreased by 0.95 percentage points, reaching 13,015 mt. Meanwhile, the issue of financial constraints among downstream enterprises has become prominent at year-end, with cargo pick-up slowing down and finished product inventories increasing by 0.75 percentage points, reaching 18,740 mt. Looking ahead to next week, with some orders nearing their delivery dates being put into production intensively, SMM expects the operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises to slightly increase to 67.14% next week (December 19-December 25). However, with a lack of strong support from the overall demand side, there is limited room for the operating rate to rise.