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Europe's focus on bulk chemical manufacture may have faded in recent times, but 2009 is proving to be the year of new advanced materials launches - particularly where high-performance and specialist qualities are demanded by customers. Sean Ottewell reports.

Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian aluminium semis fabricator, has entered into agreement with Konveyor, another aluminium semis producer based in Turkey, to manufacture heat-transfer products that would utilise aluminium in substitution for copper. Norsk Hydro intends to supply precision-drawn aluminium tubes from its Danish Tonder plant to Konveyor, which will subsequently convert them into specialist capillary tubing using advanced manufacturing technologies. The finished products will be used in heating, ventilation, refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.

A UK steel glazing specialist has helped to transform an Olympic media hub into one of Greece's foremost retail centres, providing a good example of legacy planning for future Olympic Games.

Simon Hunt, a well known copper specialist, presented a bleak view of the economy in general and for the future of the copper price at a recent copper conference in Bilbao.

UK-based lighting specialist Chalmor was declared the overall winner for the second consecutive year in the Sports Lighting category of the Energy Management and Innovation in Lighting Award Scheme (EMILAS) awards.

An official from SDI La Farga LLC's said on 11th December that the company is producing limited amounts of wirerod at its new US $39M plant in New Haven, Indiana. The new facility, a joint venture between Spain's La Farga Group and Steel Dynamics Inc, produces wirerod from number 2 scrap copper rather than cathode. The company official said "we've produced quality rod and are in the process of getting approval of customers and we have done so with several customers." He added that plant officials are "waiting for more customer orders to start producing more".

Anhui Jincheng, the Shanghai-listed producer of copper PSSF, said on 26th March that it produced 93,872t of copper PSSF in 2012, a 13% y-o-y increase from 2011. Despite the increase in output, the company made a net loss of RMB57M in 2012 from a profit of RMB24M in 2011 (loss of US$9M from a profit of US$3.8M). Remarking on the results the company said that "uncertainties in the global economy, the euro debt crisis, plus the weak Chinese economy, has negatively impacted demand by the downstream processing sector last year."

Talking at the annual CESCO/CRU World Copper Conference, CRU Principal Consultant Vivienne Lloyd said that up to 2Mt of copper demand could be lost over the next five years due to substitution and consolidation amongst Chinese semis producers. Lloyd said that the areas under the greatest threat from substitution are the automotive wiring harness sector and the HVAC sector. However, CRU believes that the aluminium/copper price ratio is likely to have peaked in 2012 at around 4:1, and will fall back gradually to 2017 reaching 3:1, which should relieve some of the substitution pressures.

Leoni AG, a specialist wire and cable producer for the automotive sector, has refuted rumours of plans to relocate its operations from the Bizerte region of Tunisia to Morocco.

Overcome all the troubles of people with the positive thought by using Muslim black magic mantra.

Miniaturisation is not new, but manufacturing mechanical, electromechanical and fluidic components on a micro scale is rapidly developing into a recognisable industry in itself. Alistair Rae reports on a selection of the latest developments in this exciting field. Over the past few years a new industry has developed to serve the growing demand for micro-manufacturing. While miniaturisation has been ongoing since the commercialisation of the transistor some 50 years ago, it is only recently that it has been viable to manufacture high volumes of mechanical and electromechanical components with features in the sub-millimetre range.

Major Japanese copper semis and wire and cable manufacturers were impacted by the devastating earthquake. It was reported that Hitachi Cable's establishments in Densen, Hidaka, Takasago and Toyoura were affected, while the Minato plant was flooded by a 1.5-metre tsunami. Fujikura's facilities in Sakura, Chiba, which engage in the production of optical materials, were also impacted. Furukawa Electric's Chiba offices, which are located at a landfill, were affected due to soil liquefaction. The company's production equipment at its telecom cable factory experienced damages. Mitsubishi Shindoh, a copper and alloy semis fabricator, saw its plumbing operations partially destroyed. San-Etsu, a brass bar specialist, is shutting down production at its Shin-Nitto plant in Ibaraki, without any significant damages reported whatsoever. Production will be transferred to two other factories.

Leoni AG, the global cables specialist, has announced Q1 2011 revenues of €910.7M, up by 38% y-o-y. This was principally attributed to strong demand for cable harnesses and wiring systems, particularly from the Chinese and international commercial vehicle industry. The company has spent €21.9M in expanding production capacity at its facilities in Eastern Europe, North Africa and Latin America. In light of these results Leoni has raised its annual sales forecast for 2011 to €3.4B, up by 15% on last year.

Another reference to electromagnetic issues. The term 'hazy' captures the issue well for a non-specialist public. Electromagnetic smog could be an alternative.