Pre-holiday Stocking Drives Operating Rates of Tin Soldering Companies to Pick Up in December

SHANGHAI, Jan 5 (SMM) - The tin solder output of SMM sample companies stood at 8,179 in December, up 1.13% MoM. Among them, the output of enterprises with capacity of or over 200 mt/month was 6,529 mt, the output of enterprises with capacity of 80-200 mt/month reached 1,276 mt, and the output of enterprises whose capacity is lower than 80 mt/month stood at 374 mt. It is estimated that the total tin solder output of sample companies in January will be 4,657 mt, with a sharp drop in the operating rates of soldering companies.

In December, the operating rates of tin soldering companies recovered, fuelled by the brisk stocking activities of terminal enterprises before the New Year's Day holiday and the Chinese New Year holiday. The data shows that the operating rates of large enterprises remained stable and the operating rates of small and medium-sized enterprises picked up significantly. Specifically, for large-scale enterprises, most of them maintained stable output in December while some increased their production month-on-month thanks pre-holiday stocking. However, a few companies were affected by the pandemic, thus the average operating rate of sample companies did not inch higher as expected.. For small and medium-sized enterprises, their operating rates rose in December, and the concentrated stocking before the holiday was the main driver. According to SMM research, the actual production of enterprises was barely disrupted by the new wave of covid-19 infections, thus it is expected that the stockpiling will gradually slow down in January.

In December, the tin prices maintained upward momentum, which restrained the demand growth of downstream enterprises. So far, the pre-holiday stocking of enterprises is about to complete, and the logistics companies are taking holidays soon. Therefore, the production of enterprises has been falling simultaneously. Most tin soldering enterprises plan to take holiday since January 10, while will resume the operation after January 29. As such, the operating rates of tin soldering enterprises in January will drop sharply month-on-month due to holiday break.