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H1 reports from China's metal companies have revealed difficult operating conditions as rising energy prices, investment in environmental protection and an increase in resource tax have squeezed margins. Shares in the metal index fell 58.6% in the first half of the year, underperforming the SSE Composite Index which saw a 48% decrease. Copper companies fared better than most as the copper price remained at historically high levels and prices of sulphuric acid - a byproduct of the copper treatment process - soared. Jiangxi Copper, China's biggest producer, reported strong results with a 55% surge in revenues year-on-year. Net profit grew at the slower rate of 32.8%, reducing the company's profit margin to 10.4%, from 12.1% in the first half of 2007. The company has a slightly bearish outlook for the rest of this year, as the continued slowdown in the global economy takes its toll on copper demand and the appreciation of the dollar puts downward pressure on copper prices. However, it suspects copper supply will remain tight, which should support prices on the downside. Yunnan Copper Company struggled in the first half as revenue fell 18.9% and net profit plunged 29.5% y-o-y. The companies profit margin was cut to 3.8%, from 4.4% in the first half of 2007. A 45-day machine overhaul was blamed for the poor sales figures as output remained flat, whilst high energy prices pushed up production costs. Tongling Nonferrous Metals saw similar problems to Yunnan as rising raw material prices and fluctuations in the copper price cut the gross margin in the firm's copper unit to just 0.59%. Company-wide results were improved greatly by the strong performance of sulphuric acid, where gross margin increased to 71.6%, bringing Tongling's profit margin to 2.9%, up from 2.0% in H1 2007.

Johannesburg - Soaring costs eroded mining companies' revenues in 2007, a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Tuesday indicated.

LONDON (Reuters) - The booming mining sector may have peaked in terms of net profit margins after costs surged more than revenues last year for top firms, a report released on Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

Unable to retrench like their unregulated counterparts, utilities are investing more than they were just a few years ago while paying record spreads over risk-free rates for financing. At the same time, revenues are under pressure due to softening power prices and an economically driven drop in demand. The past three months have seen a 1.8 per cent drop in US power usage versus the same period a year ago, according to the Edison Electric Institute. Adding insult to injury, Macquarie Research reckons regulators might become less generous when setting rates since compressed Treasury note yields may be used to justify a lower regulated return on equity.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. (FCX) Wednesday reported a sharp year-over-year plunge in profit for the first quarter, as quarterly revenues more than halved, hurt by a sharp decline in demand for copper and related metals as well as lower copper prices.

According to a study carried out by Sindicel, the Sao Paulo based non-ferrous metals association, Brazil's per capita copper consumption rose by 50% in 2002-2008 to 2.1 kg. Copper usage has grown 30% higher than the GDP growth in the same period. Sindicel's president Sergio Aredes said that the significant rise in copper usage reflects the growth in construction and high-tech products in the Brazilian economy. The association also announced that copper semis production in 2008 generated US$4.0B in revenues. Robust demand in 2008 was supported by strong consumption in the construction, energy, automotive, mining and steel sectors. But Sindicel anticipates that sales in 2009 will decline (construction by 15%, infrastructure by 19% and telecommunication wire and cable by 10%).

Jinglong Electric Material Co. Ltd. has started a special type enamelled wire project in Tongling City, Anhui Province. The company was established in 2003, engaging in the production and sale of enamelled wire. Capacity was restricted to 10,000t per annum due to dispersed plants. But by consolidating operations, Jinglong will reach annual capacity of 25,000t, also meeting local copper demand. The new project occupies 53,000m2 whilst its investment amounts to 80M yuan (US$11.7M). It is anticipated that upon reaching full capacity, the company will realise annual revenues of 950M yuan (US$139M).

HAMBURG, May 18 (Reuters) - Spot copper treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) are believed to have fallen to about $50 a tonne and 5 cents a pound, Europe's largest copper producer Aurubis (NAFG.DE) said on Monday. This was down from a TC/RC level of $75 a tonne and 7.5 cents a lb reported in March. TC/RCs, the fees charged by smelters to refine copper concentrate into metal, are a key part of the global copper industry's revenues.

The benefits for the market are obvious. Regional, ownership unbundled transmission/ infrastructure companies have a natural incentive to maximise the offering of capacity to the market, as this is the sole mechanism through which they achieve their revenues. They will be happy to invest to meet market demand. With their large scale and regional approach they can pass through the benefits of synergies and eliminate unnecessary interfaces. Finally, as they do not have any potential conflict of interest with supply or production interests, regulation can be lighter, decreasing the regulatory and administrative burden and increasing efficiency even further. Time will tell, but it seems that the ITO option has its greatest potential for those companies that can not afford to sell their transmission networks under the current economic conditions or that are opportunity constrained and have no suitable investment potential. In any event, the conclusion must be that, whereas full ownership unbundling has not been directly achieved through the Third Package, it would appear that the scene has been set for a market structure that will move gradually but inevitably into the direction originally envisaged in the Commission proposals. So was it worth it? For you to judge.

KGHM, Europe's second largest copper producer, reported financial results for the second quarter ended 30 June 2009. The company announced revenue for the second quarter was PLN2.7b (US$935m), 10% lower than the same period a year ago. Operating profit for the quarter was PLN969m (US$335m), versus PLN1.0b (US$346m) for the same period in 2008. Net profit for the second quarter was PLN845m (US$293m), 2% higher than the same period in the previous year. Poland-based KGHM's main products are copper cathode, copper wirerod and copper round billets.

Malaysian wire and cable company Supportive International Holdings Bhd reported financial results for the third quarter ended 31st October, 2009. Q3 revenue was MYR18.9 million (US$5.5 million), down from MYR31.1 million (US$9.1 million) for the same period in the previous year. Net profit for the third quarter was MYR1.5 million (US$0.4 million), compared to MYR2.4 million (US$0.7 million) a year ago.

Chinese Henan Longhui Copper Co. Ltd. has confirmed that its copper and copper alloy tube and copper pipe project is underway and is expected to be completed by June 2011. The operation is expected to produce 90,000t/y of copper and copper alloy tube, including large-calibre copper tube and corrosion-resisting copper alloy tube, and 100,000t/y of copper pipe. The project will be completed at a cost of RMB1B and is expected to generate RMB10B in sales revenue and RMB500M in pre-tax profit. The company, which is located in the Mengzhuang Industrial zone of Hui county in Henan province, produced 380,000t of copper tube in 2010 and generated RMB23.5B in sales revenue.

"The report analyzes the revenues, average price and volume by power transformers used by various voltage line segments for the key eight countries in the market. The market shares for the key players in each country have been provided. At global level, the drivers and restraints of the market is also provided."

"The supporting technologies associated with energy storage systems include power conversion (primarily focused on inverters), system-level software and controls, and systems integration services. "