Group items tagged

Brush Engineered Materials said it is expecting Q1 revenue to be 30 to 35% lower than that in Q4 2008. The Ohio-based specialty alloys company initially predicted revenue would fall by 15 to 25% from Q4. It also announced that it will cut its staff level by 15% in order to reduce costs. In a press release, Brush Engineered Materials said that it still experiences very weak demand for its products due to the global downturn and the market visibility is very low. Medical and defense-related products are in exceptions to this trend. It suggested from recent activity, the level of business may have bottomed but it is not certain of the case.

No model had predicted the current downturn, and none could cope with the scale of problems the world could face due to climate change, said Prof King.

While some of the tell-tale signs were there by mid-2008, few would have predicted the precipitous decline in aluminium market fortunes of the past few months. Prices have slumped and stocks have risen to the sort of levels not seen since the mid-1990s. While it appears the market may have bottomed, 2009 is certainly going to be a year of contemplation and constraint as producer cutbacks - enforced or voluntary - eat into inventories and consumer confidence starts to return - most analysts agree, later in the year.

Data provided by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association shows that the country's wire and cable shipments dropped 18.8% from March and 26.3% to 52,000 tonnes from a year ago. The association also said that it expects Japanese wire and cable consumption, which accounts for 60% of total copper demand, will fall to its lowest in 34 years in FY2009. However, exports to China have been increasing in recent months. Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest carmaker, said it predicts its vehicle sales to be 1 million less than the previous year.

Data from the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers Association revealed that exports fells by almost 32% m-o-m in July. Wire and cable exports fell 51% y-o-y in July. Predictions for August expect a further fall of 22% y-o-y. The country receiving the largest share of exports from Japan is Qatar, which predominantly imports electrical power cable.

Chilean private miners association Sonami and copper and mining study group Cesco anticipate that Japanese copper demand will significantly recover in Q3 of the current year. It is expected that the market for copper will remain weak for several months due to the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on 11th March. However, reconstruction-related copper demand is predicted to exhibit significant growth rates from Q3 2011.

"While there's consensus for a small deficit this year, in 2015 even the most skeptical of analysts predict an oversupplied market and a concomitant fall in the price. Not so fast says Telis Mistakidis, Glencore's copper chief."

Aggregate production of primary aluminum all over the world from January to November 2014 exceeded 48 million tonnes, making it predictable that annual production of aluminum will top 50 million tonnes.

According to preliminary data released by the Japan Copper and Brass Association, Japanese output of brass mill products declined by 5.5% y-o-y in December, to 57,523t. If the data remains unchanged, this would see the overall output of Japanese brass mill products in 2012 fall 6.7% y-o-y. This is roughly in line with the rate of decline predicted by Tetsu Takahashi, President of the association, in a December announcement. The association is more positive on the prospects for 2013 suggesting that output could expand by 4%, supported by a weaker Yen and more accommodative government policies.

Wood Mackenzie predicts that overall European copper demand will decline by 5% in 2012 to reach 4Mt. This is attributed to weak economic growth together with a prolonged debt crisis.

Li Yihuang, the chairman of Jiangxi copper, China's largest copper producer, predicts that Chinese copper demand will reach 7% in 2012. In comparison, the chairman of China's second largest copper producer, Wei Jianghong of Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, anticipates a similar growth rate of 6% in the same period. Both executives looked towards China's power infrastructure investments as the main source of investment, however, they view the cut back in China's GDP growth target to 7.5%, as well as the stagnant construction sector and slowing automotive and home appliances sectors as deterrents to stronger growth.