SMM

      This week (December 5-11), the SMM copper wire and cable enterprise operating rate was 66.31%, down 0.81 percentage points WoW and down 24.72 percentage points YoY. The overall industry production schedule slowed down this week, although some enterprises reported slight signs of recovery in new orders. A mid-week phased pullback in copper prices triggered a wait-and-see sentiment among downstream players, with customers postponing purchases over concerns about further price declines. After copper prices stabilized and rebounded, end-user procurement demand was gradually released, and the market trading atmosphere improved. By sector, as the year-end approaches, rigid demand from various downstream sectors was released in an orderly manner, supporting the operating rate. Inventory side, stimulated by the mid-week dip in copper prices, wire and cable enterprises began necessary restocking operations. The raw material inventory ratio increased by 0.61 percentage points WoW to 13,140 mt. Downstream cargo pick-up increased, leading to a decrease in finished product inventories by 0.19 percentage points WoW to 18,600 mt. Looking ahead to next week, with marginal improvement in new orders, enterprise enthusiasm for production scheduling is steadily increasing. Therefore, SMM expects the copper wire and cable enterprise operating rate to rise to 67.04% next week (December 12-18).