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According to Assomet, Italian copper and alloy semis output in 2009 will amount to 900,000-910,000 tonnes, down from earlier forecasts. Production in 2008 totalled 1.19 million tonnes. The association said that 2010 may see a slight recovery with output levels around 920,000-930,000 tonnes. Assomet had anticipated that copper and alloy semis output in 2009 and 2010 would reach 923,600 tonnes and 968,300 respectively. However, the association reviewed its forecasts after weaker-than-expected output in H2 2009. It was reported that for the nine months to September, copper and alloy semis output fell by 25.8% y-o-y to 685,000 tonnes.

Wolverine Tube (Canada) Inc., which was sold to a group of Canadian private investors in July 2008, has been renamed to Great Lakes Copper Inc. The company is Canada's leading fabricator of copper tube products for the industrial and refrigeration end-use markets.

According to the Brazilian electric conductor and non-ferrous metals association Sindicel, Brazil's copper products' trade deficit soared by 135% to US$375M in 2010. It was reported that imports reached US$944M, up by 55.7% from the previous year. Exports rose by 27.5% to US$570M in 2010. Sindicel added that copper products trade has seen consecutive deficits since 2008. The association anticipates that import growth will outperform export growth in the current year, partly due to the depreciation of the US dollar against the Brazilian real.

Leoni AG, a leading automotive wiring harness provider, reached an agreement to acquire the outstanding 50% of its joint venture partner, Daekyeung T&G, effective on 1st January 2012. Leoni acquired 50% of Daekyeung in June 2008 after an agreement one year earlier to cooperate on wiring harness development. Daekyeung produces wiring harnesses for the automotive industry in three facilities located in China. The South Korean company is expected to generate sales between €130M - €140M in 2012 and will help Leoni's objective to double sales revenue in South Korea by 2015.

According to Sims Metal Management Asia, China is anticipated to remain a leading consumer of copper scrap as it continues to produce less recycled copper than required. The company also said that Chinese imports of copper scrap have been steadily increasing. The copper scrap industry has registered a steady recovery, supported by high cathode prices. However, volumes are still below 2008 levels. Generation of copper scrap has been slow, due to the sluggish recovery in the US construction sector.

In a report from the German non-ferrous metal association, reference is made to a long-term trend towards protectionist measures of resource-rich countries. Since 2008, the number of measures has increased from 100 to 858 in Jan 2017 (hence largely before President Trump's inauguration). Easing on trade appears not to be in sight.

When Southern California Edison unveiled plans to install 250 megawatts' worth of solar panels on warehouse roofs back in March, it was hailed as a ground-breaking move. In one fell swoop, the giant utility would cut the cost of photovoltaic power, expand the solar market and kick-start efforts to transform untold acres of sun-baked commercial roof space into mini-power plants. There's just one problem: the solar industry is fighting the billion-dollar plan. In briefs filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, solar companies, industry trade groups and consumer advocates argue that allowing a utility to own and operate such massive green megawattage will crowd out competitors who can't hope to compete with a project financed by Edison's ratepayers. (In California, shareholders of investor-owned utilities are guaranteed a rate of return for approved projects, while utility customers bear a portion of the costs in the form of higher rates.) The five-year plan "would establish SCE as the monopoly developer of commercial-scale distributed solar in its service territory," wrote Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy, a San Francisco company that sells solar electricity to commercial customers. "This would irreparably impair the development of a competitive solar industry."