Copper Prices Dip, But Off-Season Weakness Persists

Copper prices have pulled back slightly in recent weeks, leading to a minor release of rigid demand orders from downstream businesses. This has driven a slight recovery in production at copper billet enterprises, but the industry remains in the traditional consumption off-season overall.

The weekly operating rate of SMM's copper billet sample enterprises was 48.74%, up 0.22 percentage points month-over-month and down 1.09 percentage points year-over-year. Despite the pullback in copper prices, raw material prices remain high due to a tight supply situation of recycled brass.

The market will remain in the traditional consumption off-season next week, with no strong drivers for order recovery at the terminal level. SMM expects the operating rate of copper billet sample enterprises to edge down further to 48.58% next week, down 0.93 percentage points year-over-year.

The high raw material costs continue to keep squeezing processing enterprise profits, suppressing their production enthusiasm. This has limited growth in new orders and overall end-use demand remains weak.