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Stocking Demand Delays Maintenance, Copper Cathode Rod Operating Rate Expected to Remain High [SMM Copper Downstream Weekly Operating Rate]

  • Dec 06, 2024, at 5:53 pm
  • SMM
This week, the SMM survey covered the production and sales of major domestic medium and large copper rod enterprises.

This week, the SMM survey covered the production and sales of major domestic medium and large copper rod enterprises. The comprehensive operating rate was 81.94%, down 2.31 percentage points WoW but 2.65 percentage points higher than expected. Meanwhile, the price difference between copper cathode rod and secondary copper rod narrowed by 655 yuan/mt YoY, and the operating rate increased by 13.1 percentage points YoY. (Surveyed enterprises: 21, capacity: 7.83 million mt).

This week, copper prices stabilized and rebounded, new orders were weak, and some enterprises conducted maintenance as scheduled, leading to a weekly decline in the operating rate of copper cathode rod. However, due to relatively sufficient orders on hand and just-in-time procurement from downstream this week, many enterprises plan to shift their focus to payment collection at month-end in December, with a need for finished product stocking. Therefore, some large enterprises delayed their maintenance plans, resulting in a higher-than-expected operating rate.

From the inventory perspective, with a slight decline in the operating rate, the finished product inventories of major domestic copper cathode rod plants decreased by 0.79% WoW this week, recording 50,400 mt, and the raw material inventories of copper cathode rod plants decreased by 1.14% WoW, recording 43,250 mt. Looking ahead, given the current insufficient finished product inventories of copper cathode rod enterprises and the support from stocking demand before month-end, the operating rate is expected to remain high next week (12.6-12.12), slightly rising to 82.92%.

  • Industry
  • Copper
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