Copper Prices Surge Again, Orders for Copper Wire and Cable Enterprises Hit Bottleneck [SMM Wire and Cable Market Weekly Review]

Mar 21, 2025, at 5:34 am

This week (3.14-3.2), the operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises was 74.53%, down 2.68 percentage points MoM, up 3.76 percentage points YoY, 7.95 percentage points lower than the expected operating rate. The main reason affecting customer orders this week was the unexpected rise in copper prices. Many wire and cable enterprises indicated that there were still engineering orders at the beginning of the week, but as copper prices continued to rise and broke through 81,000 yuan/mt, the volume and frequency of customer orders significantly decreased. Most end-users have entered a wait-and-see phase, with the market only seeing just-in-time procurement. From the perspective of wire and cable enterprise inventories, finished product inventories increased, indicating a noticeable slowdown in downstream cargo pick-up; raw material inventory, on the other hand, showed a decreasing trend. Most wire and cable enterprises stated that they are currently maintaining cautious purchasing as needed, focusing on consuming raw material inventory under the backdrop of high copper prices and slow growth in new orders. By industry, PV orders, to meet the 4.3 policy period, performed relatively well, while demand for submarine cables was also relatively sufficient, and high-voltage orders were less affected. Currently, copper prices are the main factor influencing market demand, and companies' expectations for the market are not optimistic. SMM expects the operating rate of copper wire and cable enterprises next week (3.21-3.27) to increase by 2.32 percentage points to 76.84%, 3.76 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

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