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Hitachi Cable Ltd. is expected to suffer pretax losses of Y23 billion for FY2008. The company maintains copper stocks used in cable and other semis production and due to plunging copper prices, it incurred valuation losses of around Y10 billion. In the year to 31st March, it is anticipated that sales have plummeted by 15% y-o-y to Y480 billion. One of the factors has been the slowdown in LCD tape offtake. For FY2009, Hitachi intends to make a pretax profit of around Y500 million. To achieve this, the company will consider measures such as production base consolidations. Sales in FY2009 are expected to fall by 25% y-o-y to Y360 billion.

Five of the major Japanese electric wire makers, (Furukawa Electric, Hitachi Cable, Fujikura, SWCC Showa Holdings, Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd.) have all posted consolidated recurring losses in their business results for FY2008 ended March 2009. All except Sumitomo Electric Industries, which reported lower sales, posted losses due to the dramatic fall in copper price during H2 2008 as well as the downturn in the automotive industry. Their copper inventory valuation losses have reduced their profits significantly. Sluggish demand is reported across a range of automobile related products including copper strip for connectors, winding wire and wiring harness.

According to data released by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association, wire and cable sales in FY2008 plunged to 759,368 tonnes compared to 856,151 in FY2007. This represents a 11.3% y-o-y decline, reaching the lowest level since 1976. In addition, copper and copper alloy semis, including sheets and tubes, experienced a record y-o-y decrease in March, the lowest in more than 34 years. The Japan Copper and Brass Association reported that production of copper and copper alloy semis in March shrunk by 60% y-o-y to 34,440 tonnes. For the year ended 31st March, output fell by 19% y-o-y to 806,927 tonnes, the lowest since 1982.

Hitachi Cable said that it plans to cut rolled copper output by 7% in FY2009 compared to FY2008. As a result, the company will now produce 5,760 tonnes of rolled copper output per month. Hitachi Cable intends to expand the sales of growing items, such as copper tube for heat pump hot water supply systems and rolled copper foil for lithium ion batteries. In copper strip, the company experienced very low demand in February but anticipates that it will improve in FY2009.

Xingye Copper International Group Ltd. raised its copper plate and strip capacity to 80kt. Capacity expansion has been achieved by improving technology. The company is a major high precision copper plate and strip producer in China with two plants in Cixi City, Zhejiang Province and Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province. For FY2008, Xingye Copper reported operating income of 1.758 billion yuan, down by 16.1% y-o-y, and shipments of 44,387 tonnes compared to 51,889 tonnes in 2007.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association said that copper semis output in Japan fell by 17% y-o-y to 66,145t in September. But from a m-o-m perspective, September rose by 5%, the sixth consecutive monthly improvement. It was reported that even though it was the 14th y-o-y decline, the decrease narrowed supported by the pick up in demand from the semiconductor, automobile and electronics industries. It is expected that demand in FY2009 will amount to 713,930t; that will be the lowest level since FY1975 and will represent an 11% contraction compared with FY2008.