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Toyota Motor Corporation announced on 5th November a sharp increase in H1 2012 revenues of 36.1% y-o-y compared with the same period in 2011. The increase was largely due to base effects associated with last year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami. As part of the announcement, Toyota revised up their annual profit forecasts to JPY1.05T from JPY1.0T (US$13.29B from US$12.66B). However, Toyota revised down overall expected 2012/13 car sales by 50,000 units. This was driven by downward revisions to Asian and European sales forecasts, 50,000 and 40,000 units, to 1.73M and 790,000 units respectively. North America was a bright spot for Toyota, with expectations for full year North American automobile sales revised up by 20,000 units to 2.4M vehicles.

Toyota has just announced that as from 2009 shall make available to the public two new hybrid models, in addition to the new version of the Prius.

Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. announced that its magnet wire producing subsidiary Furukawa Magnet Wire has co-developed a rectangular magnet wire with a voltage resistance of up to 1,400-1,500V. The higher voltage rating and shape factor is believed to make the cable suitable for motors within small hybrid energy vehicles (HEVs) or electric vehicles (EVs). The company is supplying Toyota with this magnet wire for use in its 'AQUA' HEV. Furukawa will expand monthly production at its plant in Mie, Japan by 50% to 300t in this fiscal year to meet demand from rising production of AQUA and to supply other HEV/EV manufacturers.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (5802) plans to begin supplying its newly developed aluminum-based wire harness to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) in 2011 for use in the Yaris subcompact.

Toyota is planning to add solar-powered air conditioning to high-end models of its Prius hybrid cars, a report says.

Toyota Prius sales top one million units

The Nikkei \nreports\n \nthat Toyota's newly established department for battery research (\nearlier post\n) is focusing on metal-air cells as the \nnext-generation battery technology for its vehicles.

A U.S. government official said dramatic improvements to lithium batteries are needed before they can efficiently power vehicles. Experts believe lithium-ion batteries are widely predicted to replace nickel metal-hydride batteries currently used in most hybrid vehicles like Toyota Co's popular Prius. The biggest challenges are extending the life of high-power lithium batteries and bringing down their relatively high cost, Tien Duong of the U.S. Department of Energy said on the sidelines of a lithium battery conference held at this government laboratory. "Life means 10 years, plus. For hybrids we know (their batteries) last 10 years plus. For the PHEV (plug-in electric vehicle), we don't know," Duong said. He did not specify what the costs should be. "One of the phenomenons that cuts short the life of the battery is power. You may have a lot of energy, but if you run out of power, that's no good," he said.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, the Japan based wire and cable manufacturer, has announced plans to provide its newly-developed aluminium wire harnesses to Toyota, for use in the Yaris subcompact, from 2011. Although the new product in 20-25% larger than a conventional copper wire harness, it weighs roughly 40% less because aluminium is lighter, thus improving vehicle efficiency of vehicles. With the price of aluminium presently very low relative to copper, the new aluminium wire harness should also reduce costs.

The worlds of game and film become one.

motors

Data provided by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association shows that the country's wire and cable shipments dropped 18.8% from March and 26.3% to 52,000 tonnes from a year ago. The association also said that it expects Japanese wire and cable consumption, which accounts for 60% of total copper demand, will fall to its lowest in 34 years in FY2009. However, exports to China have been increasing in recent months. Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest carmaker, said it predicts its vehicle sales to be 1 million less than the previous year.

Data from the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers Association revealed that exports fells by almost 32% m-o-m in July. Wire and cable exports fell 51% y-o-y in July. Predictions for August expect a further fall of 22% y-o-y. The country receiving the largest share of exports from Japan is Qatar, which predominantly imports electrical power cable.

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Yazaki Corp. and other automotive wiring harness manufacturers have temporarily shut down some of their production lines in Thailand. This follows the severe flooding which directly led to Honda Motor Co. closing down local assembly lines at its factory in Bangkok as well as Toyota Motor Co. shutting down its three plants in Eastern Thailand due to parts shortages.

JX Nippon Mining & Metals, an integrated Japan-based refined copper and semi-finished products fabricator, began full-scale production of an ultrathin rolled copper foil, measuring between 6 and 9 microns in thickness. The new products are suitable for use in smartphones and tablet PCs. Advances made in the company's rolling and surface roughening process technology led to the development of the new products. The company estimates that it holds a 75% global market share of treated rolled copper foil, which finds its main application in flexible printed circuit boards for mobile devices.

SuperPower Inc, a subsidiary of Furukawa Electric, announced on 7th December that it plans to double the production capacity of superconducting wirerod at its US plant in 2013. The company said it anticipates demand for the wirerod, which is used in areas such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, will increase over the next four to five years, and that it is intending to raise production to meet the new demand.