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Yangzhou Baosheng Copper Industry, a large Chinese manufacturer of wire and cable, announced on 12th December that it had placed an order with Germany's SMS Meer for a CONTIROD system to be installed at its plant in Baoying, Jiangsu province. The new system, which has a capacity of 48t/h, will come into action in 2014 and will enable the company to expand its range of products.

According to an annual survey from Antaike, operating rates at Chinese copper fabricators were on average 2.66 percentage points lower in 2012 than in 2011. The sector that saw the largest slow down in utilisation was the copper tube sector, down 7.27 percentage points in 2012, due to low operating rates in air conditioner sector denting the demand for copper tube in China. Wire manufacturers and foil manufacturers were reported to have fared better in 2012, with utilisation rates rising modestly.

Henan-based Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube (Henan Golden Dragon), the world's largest manufacturer of commercial copper tube, will open a new 30,000t/y high precision copper tube factory in July 2013. Henan Golden Dragon begun production of the facility in May 2012 and have invested a total of RMB 380M (USD60.5M). The factory will produce high precision copper tube.

China's copper consumption will rise in 2009 but growth will slow from 2008, Li Yihuang, president of Jiangxi Copper group, said on Thursday. "I feel this year's copper consumption growth should very closely track the country's gross domestic product growth," Li told reporters in Beijing.

Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd has started an expansion project at its Dexing copper mine to increase its annual processing capacity to 130,000 tons from the current 100,000 tons, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Li Yihuang said Jiangxi Copper, which produced nearly 20 percent of China's refined copper output last year, would be able to meet its 2009 output target of 800,000 tonnes of refined copper despite the repair, which started in late December.

It was reported that Jiangxi Copper Corporation (JCC) Copper Foil and Jiangxi University of Science and Technology developed an ultra-thin copper foil with thickness of 1 to 5 microns. This ultra-thin foil is mainly aimed for high-density printing circuit boards, but has a wider application in other end-uses as well. JCC Copper Foil is entirely owned by JCC and after applying this technology intends to proceed to large-scale production of copper foil.

Speaking at an industry conference on 29th November, Wu Yuneng, the deputy general manager of China's largest integrated copper producer Jiangxi Copper, said that he expects China to continue to drive the global demand for copper in the coming years. Mr Wu cited the fact that urbanisation rates remain below the 60% levels seen in developed markets as the reason for his view. He also said that he believes copper demand in China has a lot of room to rise in the next ten years, stating that copper consumption in China is around 5.7kg per head which is well below the developed market average of 10kg per person.

Jiangxi Copper announced plans that it will construct a large copper semis production base, which will have an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes of copper semis, in Zhencheng City, Guangzhou Province. The company will invest a total of RMB2 billion (US$294 million) in this project. No further details are given.

Higher sulphuric acid prices, up almost 200% on a year ago, to 1500 yuan per tonne, provided a big boost to China's largest integrated copper producer. Revenues contributed by sulphuric acid, a by-product of copper smelting, amounted to 1.66billion yuan in H1, a 521% increase year-on-year. Jiangxi Copper posted H1 net profit of 2.77billion yuan, an increase of 32% on the same period in 2007. The company expects demand for its products to slow in the second half of the year with global economic growth struggling to gain momentum. However, Jiangxi remain confident that copper prices will stay high as a result of, "the shortage of copper concentrates supply around the world and the downgrade of copper concentrates." Factors expected to put pressure on Jiangxi's profit margin over the second half of the year include falling smelter processing fees, as a result of global over-capacity and tight supply of concentrates, and a cut in output of semi-finished products due to China's ongoing power shortages.

Jiangxi Mingxin Copper Industry started a copper fabricating project in Yingtai Industry Park. The investment is made by Fujian merchants and amounts to 360.0 million yuan (US$52.7 million). The new project is anticipated to be completed in February 2011. It was reported that expected revenue will be 1 billion yuan (US$146.5 million) and pre-tax profits 41 million yuan (US$6.0 million).

It was reported that China's Amer International expects to complete construction of its new 250,000t/y copper rod production line, located in its Chaohu City facility in Anhui Province, by year-end. The expansion project will bring Amer's production capacity to 500,000t/y and its total copper rod production is anticipated to reach 200,000t in 2011. A spokesperson for the company said that it will manufacture rod for both domestic and foreign export markets. In addition, Amer also intends to source copper cathode for rod-processing from within China and also overseas. Total investment for the project amounted to RMB2.5B.

Southwire, the US-based aluminium and copper cablemaker, has said that while the use of copper in most electrical applications is unlikely to change, some manufacturers are likely to move toward the use of aluminium wire. The auto industry is increasingly using aluminium wire for traditional copper applications. This is occurring most predominantly outside of the US, however domestic autos companies have also been using aluminium wire for battery cable and aluminium wire harnesses for lights. Southwire stated that for most electrical applications copper usage will remain dominant because of its overall reliability.

Guangzhou Jiangtong Copper products, a subsidiary of Jiangxi Copper, announced that it began trial production at its new 400,000t/y copper wirerod plant this week. The company expects to supply nearby consumers in southern China as well as those in foreign markets in Southeast Asia. Capital investment expenditure totalled RMB2.0B.

Jiangxi Copper, the large vertically-integrated Chinese miner, smelter and semis manufacturer announced on 27th March that its output of semi-finished copper products was 582,100t in 2012, an 18.6% increase on 2011. The company said that it expects to expand production further in 2013, to 845,000t, which would be an annual increase of 45%. The company will do this by adding additional capacity, increasing available capacity to 920,000t in 2013, from 720,000t in 2012.

An opening ceremony was held to mark an agreement to build a new 150,000t/y copper semis facility in the Jinchao Economic and Development Zone, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province. Construction is expected to commence this month, in September 2012. The operation, which is a joint venture between Hong Kong Huakun International Co. Ltd. and Zheiang Tangmen Metal Structure Co. Ltd., will be capable of producing 100,000t/y of copper flat rolled products and 50,000t/y of copper foil.

China's Zhengteng Group, based in Guangdong province, will begin construction of a 150,000t/y copper products project in H2 2012. The operation will produce oxygen-free copper wirerod, copper busbars, tubes and wires beginning in H2 2012 from a facility located in Yushan County, Shangrao City in Jiangxi province. Investment capital for the project is expected to total RMB 1.5B.