According to SMM, the operating rate in the brass billet industry fell 1.28 percentage points WoW to 47.24% this week. With copper prices continuing to fluctuate at highs, market orders showed a clear divergence: only during periodic declines in copper prices did essential orders from emerging sectors like new energy and connectors see some release, while demand from the traditional bathroom hardware industry remained weak, with most enterprises seeing their new order volumes halved or even reporting zero new orders. At the same time, affected by high copper price volatility and market demand uncertainty, enterprise inventory strategies became more cautious, with both raw material and finished product inventories maintained at low levels, and companies were reluctant to rashly increase stockpiling.
Looking ahead to next week, most small and medium-sized copper billet enterprises plan a one-day holiday for New Year's Day. Combined with the current tight supply and high prices of raw materials, the stockpiling enthusiasm of brass billet enterprises is unlikely to improve. SMM expects the operating rate to drop a further 1.19 percentage points to 46.05% next week.
