Rapid inventory reduction for copper strip and foil companies

According to SMM, in March 2026, the operating rate of the copper strip and sheet industry was 77.25%, up 35.27 percentage points month over month and up 8.11 percentage points year over year. Among them, the operating rate for large enterprises was 86.39%, for medium-sized enterprises was 61.74%, and for small enterprises was 68.2%. Driven by the downstream orders’ concentrated release, copper strip and sheet enterprises’ inventories were quickly worked down, and some companies’ finished goods inventory has already fallen to historical lows. According to SMM data, in March, the number of days of finished goods inventory for the copper strip and sheet industry decreased by 4.09 days quarter over quarter to 4.97 days, and the overall inventory level remained in the low-range. The operating rate for the copper strip and sheet industry in April is expected to be 77.86%. According to SMM, although the pace of newly added orders has slowed recently, supported by the concentrated surge in March orders, enterprises’ current production scheduling remains full, and some enterprises have already received their April orders in full.