According to SMM, the operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry was 77.25% in March 2026......

According to SMM data, the operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry is expected to reach 77.86 in April. According to SMM, although the pace of new orders has slowed somewhat recently, supported by the concentrated surge in orders in March, enterprises' current production schedules remain full, and some enterprises have already fully booked their April orders.

Driven by the concentrated release of downstream orders, inventory at copper plate/sheet and strip enterprises was rapidly destocked, with finished product inventories at some enterprises having fallen to historical lows. According to SMM data, in March, days of finished product inventories in the copper plate/sheet and strip industry decreased by 4.09 days MoM to 4.97 days, with the overall inventory level remaining in a low range.

According to SMM, the operating rate of the copper plate/sheet and strip industry was 77.25% in March 2026, up 35.27 percentage points MoM and up 8.11 percentage points YoY. Among them, the operating rate of large enterprises was 86.39%, that of medium-sized enterprises was 61.74%, and that of small enterprises was 68.2%.

in January-February 2026, China’s copper plate/sheet and strip exports were still dominated by copper strip, with exports of 14,151 mt, accounting for 65% and up 23.8% YoY, serving as the core driver boosting overall exports.

The structure of China’s copper plate/sheet and strip export trade modes continued the characteristics seen in the previous period. Customs data showed that in January-February, processing trade with imported materials remained the core export mode, with exports of 14,335 mt, accounting for 66.3% and firmly maintaining its dominant position; Processing and Assembling exports were 3,655 mt, accounting for 16.9%; Ordinary Trade exports were 2,182 mt, accounting for 10.1%; and other trade modes totaled 1,458 mt, accounting for 6.7%.