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Sumitomo Electric Industries reshuffles offshore plants of automotive wiring harness when automakers restructure the production sites in North America.

It's been a long, challenging endeavor, but there are signs that the economic ecosystem built up around wave and tidal power generation is at long last gathering enough momentum to make the jump from R&D-driven to full-fledged commercial industry. Scotland, with its long stretches of west-facing coastlines, North Atlantic latitude and longstanding tradition of maritime engineering and commerce, is now at the leading edge of change when it comes to fostering development of marine renewables. Wavegen's Limpet 500 system has been pumping electricity from the western Scottish Isle of Islay shoreline since 2000 while the company and project developer npower renewables have continued to move forward with plans to develop the Siadar Wave Energy Project, potentially the first under the Scottish government's Marine Supply Obligation program. Marine Current Turbines is getting ready to flip the switch and fully commission a grid-connected 1.2-megawatt (MW) Seagen tidal turbine-based system in Northern Ireland's Strangford Narrow, while elsewhere in the EU, project developers and the marine renewables community await the much-anticipated commissioning of Pelamis's novel, serpent-like wave power system off the northern Portuguese coast.

The Pebble Partnership views the recent vote by Alaskans against Ballot Measure 4, the Clean Water Initiative, as an affirmation for the future of one of North America's largest copper and gold projects.

Prysmian Cables & Systems has announced the signing of a four year frame agreement to design and supply flexible pipes for offshore oil and gas extraction with Petrobras of Brazil. Prysmian said it is to invest around $110 million constructing a new plant in Brazil and that the deal with Petrobras represented a major step forward in the company's operations in the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical services industry. Prysmian also announced the acquisition of the German cables manufacturer Facab-Lynen. Facab-Lynen generated sales of €62 million ($96 million) in 2007 and Prysmian said the acquisition will enable the company to further increase its production capacity and develop its market position in the special cables market, particularly in the fast growing renewable energy sector.

Deal worth $900 million

LS Cable and Superior Essex have announced the signing of a definitive agreement for LS Cable to acquire Superior Essex. The board of directors for both companies approved the agreement under which Superior Essex share holders will receive $45 per share making the deal worth $900 million. The acquisition, once complete will create the world's third largest wire and cable manufacturing company with Superior Essex continuing to operate under its current name as a wholly owned subsidiary of LS Cable. Nexans and Prysmian are the world's first and second ranked cable makers. LS Cable has a strong presence in the power and communications cable sector and in the Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Superior Essex is the world's largest magnet wire producer and leads in the North American communications market as well as having operations in North America, Europe and China.

Shares in West Perth-based mineral explorer Avalon Minerals have risen 42.8 per cent after the company announced its first resource estimate for its Viscaria Copper Project, located 1200km north of Stockholm.

Rea Magnet Wire has announced that it will lay off the 75 staff employed at its Las Cruces plant located in the West Mesa Industrial Park and suspend production. This is expected to take place by February 2009, however, it depends on the work commitments of the plant. The company produces copper, aluminium and brass insulated magnet wire and bare wire, supplying motor, transformer and coil manufacturers. Rea's workforce in North America exceeds 1,000 staff. The decision to close the plant is attributed to weakening demand for magnet wire in the US. As a result of poor market conditions, the company cannot continue to operate at limited capacity. Rea Magnet reported that the decision is not permanent and it hopes to reopen the plant as long as the market circumstances permit so.

According to a recent report published by Global Industry Analysts, the global copper tube and pipe market will exceed 3.6 million tonnes by 2015. While mature regions such as North America, Western Europe and Japan exhibit flat or negative growth, emerging economies in Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and the Middle East will generate significant prospects for the copper tube and pipe industry. The fastest growth will be realised in China because of its ongoing industrialisation and urbanisation activity.

Luvata, a copper semis fabricator, believes that even though destocking in the copper supply chain is over, a significant rise in demand is not anticipated until mid-2010. The company expects that Asia will be the first region to recover, followed by North America and Europe. As a result of destocking, Luvata has got used to operating at a lower level of stock, and therefore became more efficient in its production procedures. The company intends to keep operating at lower stock levels even in periods of growth. While demand before the summer showed some recovery signs, the company is now waiting for the autumn to see whether the positive trend will continue.

ICSG 1 Feb 09 - Based on existing facilities and announced project developments, annual mine production capacity in the period 2009-2013 is expected to grow at an average rate of around 4.3% per year (%/yr) to reach 23.1 Mt in 2013, an increase of around 3.6 Mt (19%) from that in 2009. Of the total increase, copper in concentrate capacity is expected to increase by 2.7Mt (4.3%/yr) to reach 17.9 Mt and solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) production by 820,000t (4.4%/yr) to reach 5.2 Mt. Most of the new mine projects and expansions are located in Brazil, Chile, Congo, Mongolia, Peru, the United States and Zambia, which together account for around 2.6 Mt (73%) of the projected mine capacity increase during this period. Annual smelter capacity is projected to grow by an average of 2.6%/yr to reach 20.2 Mt in 2013, an increase of 2 Mt (11%) from that in 2009. Asia will be the leading contributor to growth (1.8 Mt), with expansions and new projects expected mostly in China, but also in India, Indonesia and Iran. Africa is the second leading contributor owing to developments in Zambia. North American smelting capacity will fall by 12% (250kt) due to closures of plants in Canada. The ICSG tabulations indicate that world refinery capacity will reach 26.6 Mt in 2013, an increase of 3.2 Mt (13%) from that in 2009. About 2.3 Mt of the expansion is expected to come from electrolytic refineries and 820,000t from electrowinning capacity. Electrolytic refinery capacity growth is projected to average 3.1%/yr, exceeding the projected growth in smelter capacity, and electrowinning capacity growth (at the refinery level) is expected to average 4.3%/yr. About one half (1.5 Mt) of the world refinery capacity increase during this period is expected to come from electrolytic refineries in China; about 25% (830,000 t) from electrolytic capacity increases in India, Indonesia and Iran; and about 20% (600,000 t) from electrowinning capacity increases in Congo, Peru and Zambia.

Prysmian announced that it has been awarded a project worth more than €250ml by the Dutch-German grid operator TenneT in order to link the offshore wind park DanTysk in the North Sea to the German Grid. Prysmian said that the interconnection comprises of HVDC subsea and land cable types at a voltage of 320 kV DC along a 159 km sea route and then a 45 km land route. The cables and accessories will be manufactured from 2012 onwards at Prysmian's HV factories in Europe.

Luvata's North American rolled copper products business is asking some clients to buy their own cathode. The semis fabricator aims to switch a portion of its customers to tolling deals as an alternative to 30-day payment terms, which is a move to reduce its exposure to rising copper prices. Luvata said that semis production involves a 60-75 days of cash tied up.

"IMPSA to supply 180MW to Brazil wind farm Jonathan Tilley, Windpower Monthly, 01 February 2011, 5:07pm BRAZIL: Argentina's IMPSA has received a 180MW order from Brazilian developer Compañía Hidroeléctrica de San Francisco to go to a project in north east Brazil. "

Superior Essex, a subsidiary of LS Cable & System, the wire and cable fabricator, has begun construction of a new 250,000 square-foot facility located in Tarboro, North Carolina. This represents the company's first power cable product manufacturing operation in North America. The company expects it to be operational in 2012 at a cost of $58M.

Industry insiders have revealed that the first stage of Tianjin North China Cable Company's 220,000t/y copper rod project is currently undergoing trial production. The second stage of the project will entail the installation of an Italian CCR production line which will add a further 100,000t/y of production capacity. In addition, the second stage will also involve the installation of a new wiredrawing production line and a production line of electrolytic copper. The total investment required for the realisation of the project is estimated at around US$156M.

"Power Segment highlights The Power products and solutions business revenues stood at Rs. 461 Crores, up 61% Q-O-Q as conductor volumes at about 27,000 MT have started showing signs of improvement In the Power products and solutions segment, we have added new accounts in the European markets for power conductors and in India for OPGW products. Order book at Rs 2400 crores in Power products segment remains healthy and well diversified with exports nearly accounting for 40% of total order book. Power Transmission Segment East-North Interconnection Company Ltd. (ENICL) became fully operational with completion of the second 400 KV double-circuit quad transmission line connecting Bongaigaon in Assam to Siliguri in West Bengal which makes us the only private transmission utility to successfully commission the first private mega transmission project in the country. In Bhopal Dhule Transmission Company Ltd. (BDTCL) project, few more milestones were achieved with commissioning of two more lines and two substations taking us to nearly 60% completion for the project The current revenue generating elements of the first three projects have an annualized revenue run rate of Rs 287 crore which has shown a major increase from the annualized revenue run rate of Rs. 68 crores at end of previous quarter With Sterlite's investments completed in these projects, we expect the other 2 projects BDTCL and JTCL to be fully operational progressively in next 2 quarters."

"The North American market, mostly US, accounts for approximately 50% of total military connector demand. Further, it is estimated that the US defense industry manufactures 75% of all military electronic systems worldwide. Of the 75%, approximately 50% of production is for the US government and private US companies and the remaining 25% for foreign entities."