Cable Backlog Orders Gradually Wrapping Up, Weaker Start-Up Expectations for Next Week [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

This week (April 3–April 9), the SMM copper wire and cable enterprise operating rate was 68.48%, down 1.48 percentage points WoW and down 16.19 percentage points YoY. During the week, copper prices rebounded with volatility, suppressing new orders from downstream. Additionally, as the concentrated delivery date in Q1 largely concluded, the pace of power grid order deliveries slowed down, previously accumulated orders neared completion, and enterprise production pace slightly slowed down, leading to a slight decline in the operating rate. By segment, State Grid and China Southern Power Grid recently placed relatively few orders overall, with only scattered small-value orders as the mainstay. Orders in the automotive wire and optical fiber segments maintained relatively robust momentum, while order performance in other segments remained relatively mediocre. Inventory side, enterprises primarily made just-in-need raw material purchases this week, prioritizing the consumption of existing inventory, resulting in a 3.41% WoW decline in raw material inventory. Finished product inventories edged up due to a slowdown in downstream cargo pick-up pace and fewer new orders, increasing 2.54% WoW. Looking ahead to next week, new order intake in the market remains weak, and coupled with enterprises' earlier orders on hand nearing the end of their production schedule, the industry operating rate is expected to continue declining. Therefore, SMM expects the copper wire and cable operating rate for next week (April 10–April 16) to decrease 1.88 percentage points WoW to 66.59%.