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Aurubis issued redundancy notices to 177 employees and began relocating rolling equipment to its facilities in Zutphen, Netherlands and Buffalo, USA. Aurubis took ownership of the facility from Luvata in September 2011 when it acquired Luvata's rolled products division. However, structural overcapacity due to longterm declining demand in the European copper strip for engine cooling segment led to the operation generating losses in the past few years. In an earlier announcement on Aurubis' website, the company said that production at Finspång would be gradually reduced from mid-2013 with the company expecting to finalise the closure in late 2013.

"Overcapacity, however, persists in most, though not all areas of the supply chain, providing purchasers with more choice, flexibility, and cost control. "

According to reports, Aurubis, Europe's leading copper semis fabricator, is successfully maintaining high levels of output and is looking for takeover opportunities despite the current economic turmoil in the eurozone. The company sees current global demand for copper as strong and does not expect it to weaken in the coming months. It has been speculated that Aurubis may acquire assets in Asia and/or South America in the near term. Nevertheless, the company announced last week that it plans to close some its flat rolled copper operations in Finspång, Sweden due to overcapacity.

Aurubis has announced that it will reduce its production capacity of flat rolled copper products by 35,000t in a restructuring process that will take place beginning from H2 2013. The group intends to transfer some of its rolling operations from Finspång, Sweden to Zutphen in the Netherlands and is also considering moving other types of production currently located at the Finspång factory to its facility in Buffalo, USA. Aurubis attributed the consolidation to structural overcapacity in the flat rolled products market and made specific mention to declining demand in the engine cooling segment.

Olin Brass Corporation, the US based manufacturer of copper and copper-alloy flat rolled products and fabricated components, said that the top challenges facing brass mills are weak end-use demand, volatile copper prices and overcapacity. The company estimates that the average capacity utilisation rate is just 55-60% in the US. In addition, it expects consumption of copper strip products in the US to total 829Mlbs in 2011, down from 1600Mlbs in 2000.