This week, the operating rate of die-casting zinc alloy recorded 38.7%, down 6.87 percentage points WoW. Inventory-wise, some alloy plants still made pre-holiday purchases during the week, raw material inventories edged up, while finished product inventories saw relatively small changes. The notable decline in die-casting zinc alloy operating rates this week was mainly due to some plants having 1-3 days off for the Mid-Autumn Festival, dragging down the overall weekly operating level. From the recent performance of end-users, affected by high prices, alloy plants generally reported that downstream hardware factories' stockpiling intensity fell short of previous years. By sector, traditional real estate hardware orders were ordinary, daily-use small hardware such as luggage zippers and sliders currently saw weak order demand, while orders in the electronics sector remained relatively stable. Looking ahead to next week, most die-casting zinc alloy plants still expect to take holidays during the National Day holiday, and the operating rate of die-casting zinc alloy is expected to edge down to around 37.21%, fluctuating near that level.
