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The National Bureau of Statistics released figures this week announcing a 51.8% y-o-y rise in China's copper products output to 914,400t in February. The year-to-date total of 1,580,000t indicates that there was a 21.6% increase in copper product output from the previous year, while the m-o-m rise was 33.4% in February.

China's economy might continue to decelerate as a result of slower industrial output growth and weakening overseas demand, according to a posting on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website

Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reported that the average operating rates of copper cablemakers in China rose by 10 percentage points to reach 78.7% in August. Newly tendered contracts from the State Grid Corporation of China during July and August led to the production increase. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics also indicate that cable output rose by 2.5% m-o-m to 3.53M km in August. In addition to this, an August survey of Chinese copper wirerod fabricators by SMM showed a 2 percentage point increase in the industry's average utilisation rate from the previous month, reaching 75%.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Chinese production of copper semis amounted to 1,054,000t in June 2011, representing a 17.9% y-o-y increase. The total for H1 2011 currently stands at 5,149,000t, up 17.7% y-o-y.

"Factors including increased customer awareness, unreliable grid-infrastructure, and severe power outages are likely to drive demand for portable generator sets during the forecast period (2014-2018)."