Group items tagged

El Sewedy Cables said that profits surged by 53% y-o-y to 270 million Egyptian pounds in Q2 2010 (US$47 million), beating analysts' forecasts. The company engages in the production of cables for the power and telecommunication sectors. It was reported that because other cable makers had cut output due to the recession, El Sewedy was offered the opportunity to boost exports and increase profit margins in 2010. The company has production facilities in Egypt and 10 other countries, and exports to the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Portugal, eastern European countries and Brazil.

According to the International Copper Study Group, the world refined copper market is expected to exhibit a surplus of 200,000t in 2010, up from a surplus of 166,000t in 2009. The ICSG believes that increased supply is forecast to match the growth in demand. After the 36th regular meeting of its statistical committee in Antofagasta, Chile, the ICSG reported that refined production is estimated to reach 19.1Mt in 2010 whilst consumption is projected to total 18.9Mt. As for 2011, it is anticipated that the refined copper market will see a deficit of 435,000t, with production at 19.3Mt and consumption at 19.7Mt. It was commented that improved economic activity will boost end-use demand faster than the growth in production. In addition, refined production will grow only slightly due to a shortage of concentrates.

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board (YESAB) has recommended that the controversial Carmacks copper mine project can go ahead, providing that the Western Copper Corporation (TSX: WRN) complies with 148 conditions to mitigate potential adverse impacts. The tiny community of Carmacks with a year-round population of 500 is still considered an important service center for mining and for transportation, a century after it was a popular rest stop for the Yukon gold rush. However, members of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation want Western Copper to negotiate a better environmental engineering solution as part of an Impacts Benefits Agreement with the community. Located 38km northwest of the Village of Carmacks and 192 km north of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, the Carmacks copper project is planned to be an open-pit operation that will yield about 14,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually. Western Copper has targeted production to begin during the fourth quarter of 2010. Among the comments and concerns raised with the YESAB were routing of mining-related traffic, the heap leach detoxification process, sludge management, heap leach liner performance, and the estimates of closure costs. Among the comments and concerns raised with the YESAB were routing of mining-related traffic, the heap leach detoxification process, sludge management, heap leach liner performance, and the estimates of closure costs. The YESAB Executive Committee said it was satisfied that: Western Copper adequately consulted with the First Nations in whose territory, and the residents of any community in which the project will be located or might have significant or socio-economic effects; The project proponent provided sufficient information in the project proposal to allow for the assessment of potentially significant effects; Significant adverse environmental or socio-economic project and cumulative effects identified within the scope of the scre

Interesting story in the Boston Globe about Westwood, Mass.-based Acumentrics, a maker of solid-oxide fuel cells. The article states the the company is working with Italian heating products firm Merloni TermoSanitari to develop a commercial household version of its fuel cell, which would hit the European market by 2010 and cost around $5,200.

Sumitomo Wiring Systems (SWS), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) to manufacture automotive wiring harnesses and components, will start commercial production of aluminium-conductor wiring harness at Suzuka plant, Mie, Japan in autumn 2010 to supply Japanese major automaker. SWS changed layout of Suzuka plant partially and introduced productive facilities specialized to aluminium wiring harness in June. In future, SWS aims to increase aluminium wiring harness ratio to 20-30% of the total wiring harness production.

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (G.N) expects the current downward movement in the price of copper to be short-lived amid growing expectations of a recovery in global economic growth, and it targeted copper at $5,800 per tonne by the end of 2010.

Zambia's copper output in 2010 is projected to rise to 700,000 metric tons due to increasing production at various mines, the country's Finance Ministry has said.

According to data released by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Association, copper wire and cable shipments rose by 1% y-o-y to 56,500t in December 2010. However, deliveries were down from 60,656t in the previous month and the December figure was the third lowest since 1975. It was commented that demand from the automotive sector remained weak whilst a quick recovery is not expected as automotive makers have cautious production plans for the current year. In addition, the association said that shipments in full year 2010 amounted to 680,702t, a 4.9% increase from the previous year.

Nexans reported that it saw strong improvement in performance in H2 2010. The cable maker said that sales at current metal prices amounted to 6.2 billion euro in full year 2010. The company realised a light organic growth of 0.4%. In addition, Nexans commented that sales in the second half of the year exhibited an upturn, which was a 6.5% organic growth from the same period of the previous year. It is expected that sales should continue to improve in 2011, possibly growing by more than 5%.

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.

"The group forecasts its 2011 net profit to rise to around 8.4 billion zlotys, nearly double its 2010 earnings, boosted by income from planned sales of KGHM telecom assets Dialog and Polkomtel."

China's government recently announced its 12th five-year plan for its energy industry, and it said it will build a 200,000km extra high voltage (EHV) power grid with capacity higher than 330 KV by 2015. Also announced, the government has set its compound annual growth rate for power installed capacity at 9.0% from 2011-2015, lower than the 13.3% from 2005-2010, demonstrating its intention to slow down investment in the power industry. It expects its installed capacity will be expanded to 1.49 billion KW, up 9.0% from 970 million KW at the end of 2010.

The copper network is decaying, but who cares, its being substituted for mobility. Our research showed that across 2010 and 2011, looking at almost 100,000 fixed lines, that 21 per cent of these fixed lines had no call traffic at all.

"It exceeded 780,000 tons on the half term basis, for the first time since the first half of fiscal 2010. "