Settlement Disturbances Subside, Orders Recover Slightly, and Industry Off-season Trend Continues This Week

This week (7.3-7.9), the operating rate of enamelled wire machines edged up 0.07 percentage point WoW to 77.87%, and weekly order intake edged up 0.25 percentage point WoW. This week, divergence in order-taking within the industry was prominent: some enterprises saw new orders fall short of expectations, with performance weaker than last week; other manufacturers benefited from the end of the mid-year settlement cycle, as downstream concentrated restocking brought significant new orders. Overall, order intake only edged up slightly this week, with the growth primarily driven by the recovery in downstream stockpiling willingness after the settlement disruption subsided. The end-use market remained in the traditional off-season, with overall demand steady but weak. Downward pressure did not intensify, while end-user rigid demand contributed limitedly, and no sustained growth breakthrough has yet appeared. As the production pace advanced slightly, days of finished product inventories edged up to 8.94 days, with limited inventory fluctuations. Overall, the current improvement in the industry's underlying rigid demand is weak, and the market is unlikely to shake off off-season constraints in the short term. SMM expects that next week, the operating rate of enamelled wire machines will pull back slightly to 77.80%.