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US speciality brass mill Ansonia Copper and Brass Inc. has announced that it will lay off 85 of the 102 employees at its Liberty Street, Ansonia, factory in Connecticut. The plant manufactures copper alloy rod and wires. Company President Raymond McGee said "it's a very, very difficult situation". He blamed the redundancies, on top of 76 employees laid off in April 2007, on the company's struggle with escalating costs. Since 2002 electricity costs have soared 239%, natural gas 200%, fuel oil 125%, and copper and nickel 500% apiece. Ansonia's other facility in Waterbury, CT, which manufacturers copper alloy tube is unaffected by the announcement.

Further evidence of the impact of the North American economic slowdown on copper demand has recently been published by the ABMS and government statistical bodies. North American copper wirerod production plummeted 9.6% year-on-year to 174,000 tonnes in April. Output had been on a downward trend but the magnitude of the deterioration in April has still come as something of a surprise. A year-on-year increase of 2.0% in North American output January had been followed a 1.0% fall in February and a 2.7% drop in March. In April Canadian output was flat year-on-year due to improving export sales to the US, while US production fell 9.8% year-on-year and Mexican shipments slumped by 17.5%. On a year-to-date basis North American wirerod production was 2.9% lower in the four months to April 2008. Weakening demand from the automotive industry, coupled with a resurgance in copper prices and the return of Russian wirerod imports has clearly led to a deteriorating market situation for domestic mills.

Mueller Industries second quarter results highlight the tough times that the US brass mill industry is facing, but that companies can still operate profitably in a challenging market environment. The company's plumbing and refrigeration segment saw sales fall 11% to US$404m, while its operating profits dropped 32% to US$35m. The company blamed lower shipment volumes and lower spreads for the weaker performance. Sales at the company's OEM division, which includes its brass rod activities, rose 10% year-on-year to US$354m, while its operating profits rose 5% to US$19m. The improvement here is due to acquisition of Extruded Metals. Commenting on the results Harvey Karp, Chairman of Mueller Industries said "Mueller's earnings for the first half of 2008 were achieved despite the continuing decline in the housing industry, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the turbulence in the financial markets, rising metal costs, sky-high energy prices and a slowing national economy. Considering these adverse circumstances, we are pleased with the results."

According to preliminary data released by the Japan Copper and Brass Association, production of rolled copper and alloy semis in April fell by 48.6% y-o-y to an estimated 44,420t. Compared with March, the figure represents a 28.7% rise, however, April was the 9th consecutive month that production fell. The Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association said last week that copper wire and cable sales in April dropped by 26.3% y-o-y and 18.8% m-o-m to an estimated 52,200t. The deep economic downturn continues to take its toll on copper consumption in the world's second largest economy.

Dongguan Huaxin Wire & Cable Co. Ltd. produced 4,433 tonnes of 8mm copper wirerod in April, down by 11.2% m-o-m. In the four months to April, the company produced 15.2kt of copper wirerod whilst it sold 13.9kt. About 78% of production in March and April was exported. Dongguan Huaxin's annual capacity of copper wirerod amounts to 72kt per annum.

Chinese imports of copper and copper products fell by 39.8% y-o-y to 262,676t in April 2011. Moreover, April imports contracted by 13.7% m-o-m. On the other hand, imports of copper scrap increased by 2.7% y-o-y to 380,000t in April, but fell by 2.6% m-o-m. January to April imports of copper and copper products amounted to 1.2Mt, which represents a fall of 22.6% y-o-y. Conversely, January to April imports of copper scrap rose by 1.9% to 1.4Mt from the same period in 2010.

After over a year of discussions, the final roadmap for the development of the domestic electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle (xEV) industry is likely to be unveiled by the Government in April, just missing the Budget.

According to preliminary data from the Japan Copper and Brass Association, Japan's April shipments of rolled copper declined by 8.1% y-o-y, to 64,914t. The fall in production was attributed to poor demand from the electronics sector, despite robust consumption by the automotive industry. Nevertheless, shipments of rolled copper increased 3.2% m-o-m.

According to a survey conducted by the Copper & Brass Servicenter Association, a US-based trade group, US servicenter shipments of copper and brass products amounted to 22.7Mlbs (10,297t) in April, down by 7.0% m-o-m and down by 0.9% y-o-y. The m-o-m decline was largely attributed to weaker demand for 300-series brass rod and bar, as shipments declined by 9.9%, reaching 5.2Mlbs. Servicenters enjoyed a good Q1 as shipment levels rose to reach 72.7Mlbs (32,736t), up by 4.2% y-o-y, with the peak of the quarter occurring in March, just as it did in 2011. Over 50% of servicecenters surveyed believed that incoming orders will stay at the same level in June-August 2012 as they were in March-May 2012.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.

The State Administration of Taxation in China announced that it will increase its export tax rebates on copper foil, plate and tube from 1st April. The policy was announced on 27th March and it aims to boost Chinese exports. Copper plate's export tax rebate will rise from 5% to 9%, copper foil's from 5% to 13%, and copper tube's from 9% to 13%. It is expected that the measure will support the copper semis market.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association reported that copper semis production amounted to 70,699t in April, a rise of 3.1% m-o-m on a seasonally adjusted basis, and almost flat y-o-y. This was principally attributed to fabricators ramping up production after the government revoked its schedule of rolling power cuts which were employed in March following the earthquake. In addition to this, increased demand from the air conditioning sector and further anticipated power outages over the summer are likely to have supported producers' decisions to increase production in April.

The Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Maker's Association reported that copper wire and cable shipments amounted to 55,400t in April 2011, down by 1.4% y-o-y, mainly due to the earthquake. It was the second consecutive month that shipments fell, attributed to weakened demand from the domestic electrical machinery and automotive sectors. However, April deliveries were positively impacted by increased demand from the construction sector, which is supported by rehabilitation needs.

"China's Xiangguang Copper completed an expansion in April that has lifted annual refining capacity up 70 percent to 600,000 tonnes, a company manager said on Friday."

Xinxing Zhunguan, a Zhejiang-based manufacturer of copper wirerod, plans to increase production at its facility to 165,000t in 2013, up by 10% from 150,000t in 2012. Despite low profitability at Chinese wirerod producers, an official at the company said Xinxing Zhunguan still plans to increase output in 2013 in order to enhance competitiveness. The company said it expects orders to be subdued in the run up to the Chinese Lunar New Year, but then expects a strong rebound after the holiday period. This is consistent with another report on 11th January from Reuters which cited several Chinese copper traders as expecting the period between now and the holiday to be quiet, followed by a strong rebound.

According to an official from Chinalco Kunming Copper Co., the Chinese wirerod manufacturer, the company produced 10,000t of copper wirerod in March, up from 7,000t in February. The official said that March's output of wirerod had risen because of a week-long shutdown in February for the Chinese New Year. However, output had still fallen short of the company's 13,000t target. Chinalco Kunming plans to produce 150,000t of wirerod in 2013, utilising around 68% of its 220,000t/y capacity. According to a report from Asian Metal, the company has recently settled its long-term charges for processing 8.0mm wirerod at RMB1,150/t (US$183/t).

Wirerod production at Hebei Dawufeng Copper has been temporarily suspended since early April in order to carry out maintenance. The company elected to halt production for a month in order to carry out equipment maintenance, owing to the currently sluggish wirerod market. Production at the plant, which has a wirerod production capacity of 100,000 t/y is scheduled to re-start in early May.

Thin-film solar company Nanosolar has been sitting on a big secret for much of this year, it turns out: The company took a $300 million financing this March, and has remained mum ever since, only detailing it on the company's blog this morning after VentureWire reported the funding. While Nanosolar hasn't been entirely secretive about its technology, with chief executive Martin Rosencheisen showing off a rapid manufacturing technique early in summer, but apparently it didn't want details leaking on this giant-sized investment until necessary. Word slipped out in April about $50 million of the total, but at the time, Nanosolar didn't want to talk - and it's now clear why. The race for funds, and ever-larger production targets, is definitely on for thin film. Secretive thin-film silicon company Optisolar has raised over $200 million this year, and Nanosolar's thin-film CIGS competitor Miasole is trying to close on a similar amount. And while dozens of other startups are also on the hunt, large companies like Oerlikon Solar and Applied Materials are pouring money into ventures of their own. In many ways, it looks like an overheated sector. But on the other hand, Optisolar's recent deal with PG&E to provide 550 megawatts of electricity suggests that the potential for thin film panels is larger than previously expected, even when considering one analyst firm's prediction earlier this year that the sector will grow at 45 percent annually. That figure could now be much higher, especially for a few big winners - of which Nanosolar will likely be one. The company will be doing some utility-scale projects of its own, Rosencheisen tells us, with experienced partners. It also has a panel built specifically for use by utilities. And one of the backers of this funding, AES Corp., is also one of the world's biggest power companies. At the moment, Nanosolar is still working toward a gigawatt of annual manufacturing capacity, but it will grow be

According to the Index of Industrial Production figures released on Thursday, while the manufacturing sector growth rate slipped from 12.4% to 7.5% in the month, power generation recorded a sharper decline from 8.7% to 1.4%. The mining sector, however, registered robust growth in April, moving up to 8.6% from 2.6% in the corresponding period last year.

India has shipped close to 85 million mobile handsets between April 2007 and March 2008, compared to under 66 million units shipped in the previous fiscal, registering an year-on-year growth of around 29 per cent.