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Three plastic pipe system manufacturers, Pipelife Hungaria, Wavin Hungary and BTH Fitting (Tessenderlo Group), two of them leading European players, are suspected of being part of a price fixing cartel operating in Hungary

Mueller Industries Inc., the US based copper tube and fittings manufacturer, announced its end of year 2011 results, reporting net sales of US$491M in Q4 2011, down from US$527M in Q4 2010. The company attributed US$11M of the diffrence in net sales between Q4 2011 and the previous year period to a decline in the copper price. US$25M of the difference was attributed to lower unit shipment volumes, of which, the plumbing and refrigeration sectors accounted for US$14M. The company is optimistic that new housing starts will continue to rise through 2012, boosting copper tube demand.

Mueller Industries, a leading producer of copper tubes and brass products, reported net sales of $594.1M in Q2 2012. After accounting for changes of metals prices, this represents a decline of 1% y-o-y. The contraction was partially offset by a slightly higher sales volume y-o-y.

Mueller Inc, the US-based manufacturer of plumbing and commercial copper tube, announced on 5th February that its operating revenue for the fourth quarter of 2012 increased by 27.1% y-o-y, to USD16.4M, compared to the same period in 2011. CEO Greg Christopher said that the company is heavily dependent on the housing and commercial construction sector, and after five years of decline and stagnation," the industry finally appears to be gaining positive momentum."

"The copper industry is already facing substitution challenges from materials like aluminium and needs to use technology to help ensure larger-scale, more permanent switches are not made, industry participants said. A group of panelists at the Metal Bulletin and American Metal Market Copper Seminar in New York on Wednesday June 6 said that while technology is clearly an opportunity for the industry, there are still some risks. According to Freeport McMoRan vp sales and marketing Steve Higgins, much of the "easy substitution" - such as plumbing tube or transformer lines - has already happened. "Substitution is less than 2% of refined demand today… It's a bit troubling, but it happens," he said. "The bigger worry is that aluminium is going to make inroads into products that have high switching costs - ACR tubing, motors, or into some medium to high voltage power cables and the like that the manufacturers have to go in and put in a lot of capital costs to convert. Once converted, switching back becomes "extraordinarily difficult," he said. "That's the biggest risk to our market as I..."

Mueller Industries, Inc. has announced its sales results for 2008. Net income in 2008 amounted to US$ 80.8 million, compared with US$ 115.5 million realised in 2007. Net income in Q4 2008 reached US$ 7.8 million compared to US$ 28.8 million in the same period in 2007. The company attributed the sharp contraction in its Q4 income mainly to weak shipments and the lower average cost of copper. The plumbing and refrigeration segment has been hit by slowing demand and higher per unit conversion costs on lower production volumes. In addition, European copper tube activities were interrupted for approximately four weeks due to a fire. In response to the ongoing economic crisis, the company's strategy for 2009 is to readjust operations and reduce costs.

Wolverine Tube has announced the sale of its Canadian plumbing tube unit as part of its long-term growth strategy. The sale, worth $42 million, would enable the company to focus "its business and capital on the development and sale of value-added, energy-efficient heat-transfer tubing, fabricated assemblies and metal joining products to market leading customers", the chairman of Wolverine said. Wolverine's debts of over $260 million would be reduced to less than $133 million following the sale, reducing to under $100 million by the end of the year. The company said it's annual revenue would reach around $850 million following the sale and that better economic conditions in 2009 should help to "foster the company's growth".

The Court of Justice of the European Union rejected both appeals against fines imposed by the European Commission in December 2003 and September 2004 upon KME Germany AG, KME France SAS and KME Italy S.p.A.. The fines related to the KME Group S.p.A. subsidiaries involvement in antitrust infringements within the industrial tubes and plumbing tubes markets. The fines, which amount to €39.8M and €67.1M, are now final. KME Group stated that the fine amounts were wholly provisioned in the profit and loss accounts of the 2003 fiscal year.

South Korean makers of copper pipes, who are continuously implementing a policy to intensively promote their exports due to the weak demand for the products in the domestic market, renewed the annual record high for third straight year in 2013

""The European market is still contracting and it is no longer economically viable to continue production at two sites," Mr Smith told ECHO Business."

It was reported that Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation is planning to build a US$50mln copper tube project at Abu Dhabi's proposed metals park at Taweelah. The company has invited potential contractors to bid by the end of September. It is expected that the project will take 18 months to complete whilst capacity will amount to 30,000-40,000 tonnes of copper tube per annum. The plant aims to meet demand for copper commercial and plumbing tube in the Middle East and North Africa regions which currently rely on imports.

Crane Group, an Australian non-ferrous metals and plastic products manufacturer and distributor, announced revenue for the year ended 30th June 2008 of AUD$2,352m, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%. Net profit after tax before significant items rose to AUD$63.8m, an improvement of 18.2% on last year, thanks to strong results from the firm's plastic piping and distribution arms, Pipelines and Tradelink. Crane Copper Tube, the Group's non-ferrous metals division, reported EBIT of AUD$4.0m compared with a loss of AUD$2.5m last year. Revenue was up 2% to AUD$142m as stronger export sales helped offset subdued demand from the domestic plumbing market, according to Crane Group. "The lean manufacturing programme progressively introduced at CCT over the past two years continues to provide benefits in both productivity and working capital efficiency," said the company.

Wolverine Tube, the Huntsville, Alabama based brass and copper tube manufacturer, reported a net loss of US$3.2m in Q2 2008, down from US$13.3m in the same period last year. Net sales were US$245.5m an 18% decrease y-o-y, with total volume of shipments down 30% to 46.5m lbs. Wolverine said, "The comparative decrease in shipments was due primarily to the company's withdrawl from the domestic wholesale plumbing tube business and closure of its Decatur, Alabama facility in late 2007." The gross margin was 3.2%, down from 5.1% a year earlier owing to lower production and shipping volumes, a result of the downturn in demand from the residential housing market.

The Japan Copper & Brass Association reported Japanese copper rolled product import fell by 2.5% y-o-y to 50,057t in the fiscal year ending March 2008. While volume of import was still high, it has fallen y-o-y the first time since the fiscal year ending March 2002. Copper tube import decreased by 19% y-o-y to 10,661t, partly due to the slowdown of new housing starts after the Japanese imposed new building standard law. Biggest importers to Japan are reported to be South Korea, China, Germany, Taiwan and North America.

According to the Japan Copper and Brass Association, total production of copper and copper alloy semis fell by 4.1% y-o-y to 72,770t in July. Output also contracted by 0.5% m-o-m in July, a second consecutive monthly decline. The fall is attributed in large part to the struggling automotive sector, which has been strongly impacted by the 11th March disaster.

Production for domestic shipments contracted by 6.6% y-o-y to reach 51,112t, whilst output for export markets fell more rapidly in January, reaching 8,898t after a 23.1% y-o-y decline (this however, was narrower than the December drop in exports of 30.7% y-o-y). Copper strip still represented the most heavily produced brass mill semi-fabricated product (27.7% of overall production in gross weight) but output decreased by 11.3% y-o-y, amounting to 16,600t in January. This was principally attributed to weak interconnector demand, the impact of the flooding in Thailand and the highly appreciated yen affecting the export market. Copper tube output decreased by 14.5% y-o-y to 9,750t in January, on weak demand from air conditioner manufacturers caused by bad weather and a slow world economy. Brass bar production fell by 7.7% y-o-y but rose by 900t since December to reach 14,206t in January. The change was attributed to improving demand from the domestic automotive and plumbing sectors.