According to SMM, the operating rate of the brass billet industry fell 0.23 percentage points WoW to 46.4% this week, and the industry as a whole remained in the doldrums. Cost side, copper prices continued to fluctuate at highs, and enterprises faced significant pressure in raw material procurement. Imported brass is priced based on copper cathode prices, while domestic scrap brass is affected by invoice compliance requirements, further increasing overall costs and multiplying operating pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises. Inventory side, the industry's raw material inventory stood at 3.62 days, and finished product inventories decreased slightly by 0.05 days WoW to 5.8 days. Due to market uncertainty, enterprises focused on destocking.
Looking ahead to next week, new orders for brass billet enterprises performed poorly, with no incremental support from traditional downstream sectors such as plumbing and hardware. Some small enterprises plan to enter the Chinese New Year holiday early, leading to further contraction on the supply side. SMM expects the operating rate of the brass billet industry to drop another 0.13 percentage points to 46.27% next week.
