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China Steel Australia plans to at least triple its nickel pig iron production capacity through a $92 million expansion of its Linyi plant in China's Shandong Province. The company, which services the domestic Chinese market, today announced that fixed price building contracts had been signed for the plant expansion, with production scheduled to commence in January, 2009.

The London Stock Exchange listed Indian company, Vedanta, will build a US$15M (Dh55M) continuous copper rod plant with annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes in Fujairah, UAE, which will be operational by December to capture the strong demand from regional infrastructure projects. Copper rods manufactured by the plant will be used in cables for power grids for the region and the company is expecting more demand coming from not only the UAE and the GCC but the whole Middle East.

"The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model for power plant design and construction has demonstrated its ability to provide overall project guarantees and a single point of responsibility for owners. However, both the EPC provider and - to a greater extent - the plant owner, can realize significant improvements to this approach by engaging earlier and deeper with the OEM providing the instrumentation, control and electrical system (ICE)."

It has been announced that Nexans will be the first major tenant in a business park near Goose Creek, outside Charleston, S.C. The new $85 million plant will employ 200 and construction is expected to start this year with hiring beginning in late 2013. Dirk Steinbrink, vice president in charge of Nexans' High Voltage and Submarine Business Group said "establishing our Berkeley plant is a key strategic development that will enable Nexans to capitalize on the ever growing demand for high-quality high-voltage cables designed and manufactured to meet the specific needs of the major power transmission infrastructure projects in North America and worldwide in the coming years."

Nexans, the French cable maker, announced that its new cable plant in Qatar starts commercial production. Nexans's joint venture (JV), the Qatar International Cable Company (QICC) is located in Mesaieed Industrial City, which is 40 km from Doha. The new facility employs more than 100 staff, and it is expected that it will generate annual revenues of more than US$100 million by 2011. Nexans said that the plant will engage in the production of LV, MV and low-end HV power cables for energy infrastructure and building projects. It will also produce special cables for the oil and gas industry. Potential target markets include Qatar, the GCC and Yemen. The power cable plant occupies 19,000 sq.m. on an overall plot of 70,000 sq.m., close to a harbour that is reportedly developing as the largest in the Middle East. QICC was established in 2008, as a JV between Nexans (30%), Special Projects Company and Al Neama Industrial Co.

Nissan Copper Ltd., of Mumbai, is planning construction of a greenfield plant near its existing Silvassa facility. Expected to begin trial production in early 2010, the new plant will produce inner groove copper tube and LWC coils. "Presently, [these] tubes are not being produced in India and the margins for this product are expected to be high," the company said. The new plant will have a capacity of 12,000 t/y.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will provide $36 million for 15 projects aimed at furthering the development of new and cost-effective technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants. \n\n"Currently, the existing U.S. coal fleet accounts for over half of all electricity generated in this country," U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "The projects announced today will combat climate change and help meet current and future energy needs by curbing CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired plants." \n\n

This evolution made sense at first, because power stations were costlier and less reliable than the grid, so by backing each other up through the grid and melding customers' diverse loads, they could save capacity and achieve reliability. But these assumptions have reversed: central thermal power plants now cost less than the grid, and are so reliable that about 98 percent to 99 percent of all power failures originate in the grid. Thus the original architecture is raising, not lowering, costs and failure rates: cheap and reliable power must now be made at or near customers.

June 2008\nNA Copper Mail

Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) said it is expecting at least EUR40 million of synergies each year from the takeover of Cumerio which was completed in March this year. The company said that it will benefit from the transfer of best practice between the two companies while cost savings mainly come from logistics and process optimization. NA also plans to increase production at its Cumerio smelters. The company expects further acquisition opportunities in Europe and in other parts of the world, including Asia. NA plans to expand its operations in southeastern Europe and the Black Sea region to capitalize on its strong economic growth before looking for growth opportunities outside Europe. In Bulgaria, the company currently expands copper cathode production capacity of its Pirdop smelter to 180,000 tonnes per year.

Norddeutsche Affinerie is to invest €62.5M to increase by 60% its copper scrap recycling capacity in Lünen, Germany by 2011. The investment will double the firm's capacity to process complex copper-bearing scrap such as shreddings, powders and electrical scrap to 140,000t/y, bringing total scrap recycling capacity up to 350,000t/y from 220,000t/y currently. The scrap will be processed into copper cathode. The investment will see the installation of a second smelting furnace, and a waste gas purification plant in Lünen. Norddeutsche's current secondary smelter in Lünen uses a range of scrap, whilst its Hamburg plant uses copper concentrate and a small percentage of high-grade scrap. Electronic scrap availability has increased in Europe as end-of-life regulations have been introduced for its disposal.

Another bad sign for copper demand appeared in the news today. In the UK, Jaguar Land Rover plans to lay off 850 agency workers, mostly IT and engineering staff, at plants in West Midlands and Warwickshire. Staff members at Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Whitley and Gaydon are told that they will lose their jobs by the end of this year. The company claimed the decision as 'responsible and rapid action for the challenging environment it faces'. The company employs 16,000 staff at plants in the region at the moment.

It is believed that a cash crunch is reducing orders in the Chinese power sector, which accounts for 60% of the country's copper demand. Analysts predicted strong copper demand in H1 as the country was eager to repair the damages to power networks caused by the heavy snow in the early part of the year. However, repairs have so far mainly been made to aluminium and fibre-optic cables. Cash flow problems at copper rod and wire plants have occurred following the government's tight credit policy and high copper prices. Some 30% of copper wirerod production capacity is being reported idle. The cash shortages have also delayed copper buying from active copper fabricators, further dampening consumption of the metal. China, a net importer of copper, exported 31,000 tonnes of refined copper in April, up 227% year-on-year, with the possibility that the country might have been re-exporting the metal since late February. China's General Administration of Customs reported that 14,000 tonnes were exported to South Korea, six times that from the same period last year. This perhaps confirms that traders were re-exporting copper it has imported to LME-approved warehouses to take advantage of the discount between Shanghai and LME copper prices.

Neans focuses on "priority markets"

In the past few days world leading cablemaker Nexans has announced one acquisition, one new joint venture and one asset disposal. On the 30th May, Nexans acquired Intercond a leading Italian manufacturer of special cables for industrial equipment and subsea applications. The company had sales of €90m and employs 150. "This [€90m] acquisition fits totally in the Group's strategy by increasing the proportion of its business in high value-added special cables", said Gerard Hauser, Chairman and CEO of Nexans. On the 2nd June, Nexans released a press report confirming that it has formed a joint venture to create a wire and cable plant in Qatar, the country's first manufacturing facility. Qatar International Cable Company (QICC) is owned 29% by Nexans with the balance being owned by Special Projects Company and Al Neama Industrial Co. The new plant in the industrial city of Mesaleed, 40km from Doha, and will employ 210 people. By the end of 2009 it will begin manufacturing low and medium voltage cables for buildings and energy infrastructure as well as special cables for the oil and gas industry. This JV will generate sales of $150m per year by 2010 at current copper prices. Finally, Nexans confirmed that it has completed the pre-announced sale of its copper telecom cable plant at Santander in Spain to the British company B3 Cable Solutions for €17m. These three actions continue to refocus the group's strategy on priority market segments.

Sumitomo Wiring Systems (SWS), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) to manufacture automotive wiring harnesses and components, will start commercial production of aluminium-conductor wiring harness at Suzuka plant, Mie, Japan in autumn 2010 to supply Japanese major automaker. SWS changed layout of Suzuka plant partially and introduced productive facilities specialized to aluminium wiring harness in June. In future, SWS aims to increase aluminium wiring harness ratio to 20-30% of the total wiring harness production.

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.

Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) plans to construct automotive connector factories in China and Vietnam. It was reported that SEI will spend 1.9 billion yen to build a factory in Jiangsu province, China, by June 2012. The establishment will employ 360 and will be the third automotive connector production site in China, along with the plants in Tianjin and Huizhou. In addition, SEI will construct a plant in Vietnam at a cost of 1.7 billion yen. The facility will employ 430 and is anticipated to be operational in October 2011. SEI's wiring harness unit Sumitomo Wiring Systems will construct the two plants, raising the group's total connector output by 25% to 500 million units per month. The company expects that demand for connectors will grow by 5% annually, supported by robust automotive sales in emerging markets and elsewhere.

"Alstom signs small hydropower contracts in Brazil 16 February 2011 Two small hydropower plants in Brazil will use Alstom's specialised hydropower plant equipment"