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Prysmian, the Italy-based manufacturer of wire and cable announce on 26th February that it has secured a €350M (US$462M) contract from Alstom Grid to supply the DolWin3 project with power cables. The contract, which will involve supplying and installing 900MW submarine and land cables along a 78km sea route and an 83km land route, will connect off-shore wind farms in the North Sea to the German power grid. The work is scheduled to be completed by December 2016.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved JPMorgan Chase & Co's plan to launch a physically backed exchange-traded fund for copper in the US. Major end users of copper, including Southwire, Encore Wire, Luvata and AmRod have vigorously opposed the launch of the physically backed ETF. The consumers argue that the removal of 183,000t of copper from the market, 27% of current LME inventories, would have a "devastating" effect on the market by creating tightness in supply. US senator Carl Levin, who is also opposed to the launch of the fund, said that the ETF will "increase copper prices and volatility, and undermine market efforts to produce prices in response to supply and demand by copper users".

Wanma Cable recently announced that for the last year its operating income was RMB2.6 billion ($0.4 billion) increasing by 21.32% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB103.6 million ($16.4 million) increasing 6.39% year-on-year. In product layout, the company consolidated its MV/LV and EHV market positions while establishing a special cable business division to intensify efforts to develop a special cable business. The company has secured a good start in new fields, such as rail transit, power generation, petroleum and petrochemical, wind power and coal mining. Wanma Cable's CEO recently said that the income target of company in this year was RMB3.1 billion ($0.5 billion) increasing by 20% year-on-year, based on the copper price keeping last year's price level. The company completed an investment plan in EHV and MV/LV cable through an IPO raising funds."

The Saudi Cable Company announced that it has secured orders from two of Korea's biggest construction firms, taking its total order value for the month to over SAR1B (approximately US$266.6M). The Jeddah-based supplier of copper cables received a SAR63M (approximately US$16.8M) order from Doosan Company, a diversified firm covering construction and engineering among other sectors, and a SAR56M (approximately US$14.93M) order from Hyundai Engineering. Both mandates will be supplied in Q1 of next year.

Kuwait - LS Cable & System wins $110M order LS Cable & System announced that it had secured a 400kV extra-high voltage cable project valued at $110 million (about KRW130 billion) from the Ministry of Electricity and Water of Kuwait. LS Cable & System said it will supply and install 400kV extra-high voltage conductor with insulated cables and connectors on a turnkey basis. LS Cable & System said that unlike ordinary extra-high voltage cable using pure copper for the conductor, the conductor with insulated cables to be installed will be a high-tech cable in which the strands of wire comprising the conductors are coated with enamel to reduce transmission resistance. This raises transmission capacity by more than 20%. When this type of conductor with insulated cable is used, the overall weight and thickness of the cable can be reduced, as much as the transmission resistance falls, greatly reducing the cost of cable manufacturing and power grid implementation.

The German copper cathode and semis fabricator, Aurubis, has reported its concerns over the Federal Government's decision to phase out nuclear power. Aurubis said that the new legislative package, which involves the decommissioning of seven base load power plants, does not ensure that electricity will remain secure and affordable for the company. As such, it believes that power supply now represents a significant downside risk to its operations. In the event of a momentary power failure, the company would suffer a half-day cathode production loss. A sustained power shortage or blackout could cause substantial damage to plant equipment as liquid melts solidify. Aurubis said that steps were required to be taken to expand the power grid and increase power plant capacities. The company currently uses 1Bn KWh/y, approximately the same amount as 600,000 inhabitants.

"A decade ago, there were 1.1billion pounds of brass rod consumed in the United States. This year, it's projected to be about 600million pounds," said the President of Chase Brass. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of manufacturers of copper and brass product moving their operations overseas to low-cost locations such as China. A representative of the United Steel Workers union said, "We went through the 1980's and the 1990's recessions and never really felt it here, but for the last decade we've really felt it." According to the union, Chase has struggled to secure consistent supplies of scrap due to fierce competition from overseas. Chase claims that its Montpelier, Ohio facility is among the most technologically advanced and efficient brass plants in the world, but it has difficulty, "competing against Chinese brass facilities that are subsidised by that country's central government." Chase Brass is presently owned by KPS Capital Partners, a private equity firm, who bought the company last November.

Difficulties securing raw materials led to a 0.5% y-o-y drop in output of refined copper, to 320,000t, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC). A downturn in demand coupled with increasing raw materials prices has produced very difficult operating conditions, with one Henan-based trader commenting that, "unless the Shanghai copper price recovers, the fall in Chinese copper output is likely to extend until September." Over the first eight months of 2008, refined copper output increased to 2.47m tonnes, or by 15% on last year. However, some are beginning to question China's ability to sustain the rapid rate of growth it has shown recently, leading to a drop-off in demand.