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"1. Chinese smelters are jointly calling on the government to scrap the 15% export tax on aluminium ingots, as they hope to benefit from a global market deficit. Yet many market participants cast doubts on the proposal as it is against Beijing's industrial policy on the light metal. 2. Beijing has cancelled approval requirement for aluminium smelting projects, but it continues to keep tight control over the sector, ordering local governments not to register new aluminium smelting..."

South African smelting technology developer Tenova Pyromet is increasing its presence around the globe through a growing number of large projects and the continual development and improvement of its technologies. Formerly known as Pyromet, Tenova Pyromet is now part of the multinational Tenova group of industrial companies, with which Tenova Pyromet has the advantage of being closely networked. When Italian holding company Tenova bought Pyromet in September 2006, the company changed its name and acquired the benefit of having Tenova stand surety for the company's credit line. This allowed for growth within Tenova Pyromet at a rate previously unexperienced by the company, owing to the unfreezing of large sums of financial resources.

Mitsui Mining & Smelting addressed this by covering the silicon with thin copper and creating a structure with spaces to accommodate the swelling of the cell inside its negative electrode.

It was reported that Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. is considering a partial shift of its electrodeposited copper foil output from Saitama Prefecture to an overseas facility. The company is attempting to reconcile concerns over the possibility of further power shortages affecting their production in Japan and the risk of overseas technology leaks. Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. is a leading ED copper foil producer and a major supplier of copper foil for smartphones.

It has been reported that Chinese Guangxi Nanguo Copper Co. Ltd.'s 150,000t/y copper smelting project was approved by experts on 10th June 2011. The project will be built in Guangxi-ASEAN Youth Industrial Park in Fusui County of Chongzuo City at a cost of RMB3.6B. However, before development is allowed to proceed, approval is required from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China. A decision is expected to be announced in the imminent future.

"Recently, carbon-free copper smelting technology, a technology with full independent intellectual property rights, has passed expert examination organized by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) in Dongying, Shandong province. It is the first time zero-carbon emissions in the copper melting process has been realized and also opens a new gate for low-carbon development of China's nonferrous metals industry."

SMS Meer of Germany announced on 8th November that it had received an order from Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group for a CONTIROD casting and rolling plant for the production of copper wirerod. The new wirerod line can produces 225,000t/y of copper wirerod from cathode. The news follows an announcement from Tongling Nonferrous Metals that it is planning to expand production in its smelting division to become China's largest copper smelter. The company, which produces copper cathode as well as end products such as semis and rod, said it is planning to raise smelting output by 400,000t/y. This is equivalent to 50% of production and would take total output to 1.2Mt/y, overtaking China's current largest smelter Jiangxi Copper.

Japan's Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd will invest 500 million ringgit to build a new plant for making copper foils in Malaysia, a newspaper reported on Friday. The new plant, specialising in high-productivity 12-micron and thinner copper foils, will have a production capacity of 1,200 tonnes a month once fully operational, the Business Times said. Construction work on first phase of the plant, with a capacity of 700 tonnes a month, will begin in November and will be completed by June 2010, it quoted Masayuki Misawa, managing director of Mitsui Copper Foil Sdn Bhd, in which the Japanese firm is a stakeholder, as saying. Work on the 500-tonne a month second phase will start immediately after that, he said. The new plant is being constructed in Shah Alam, next to an existing facility of the company which has a monthly production capacity of 1,600 tonnes.

Following the announcement last week that several Japanese rolled copper makers are to increase their rolling margins for rolled copper products, Mitsui Mining and Smelting announced it is seeking a Y20-30 per kilogram increase in rolling margins for its brass strip and flat rolled products. This is to cover the higher costs for energy, freight and subsidiary materials and is to be implemented for loss making items, which are mainly in the brass products line. Mitsubishi Shindoh, Japan's largest copper flat rolled and strip products maker, also recently announced it was increasing its rolling margins.

Mitsui Mining and Smelting (MMS) aims to expand its market share in Asia from 50% to 70% for electrolytic copper foil product. The company has recently doubled its electrolytic copper foil production capacity at its two subsidiaries which now have production capacity of more than 600t/m. MMS also expanded its output capacity of ultra thin copper foil with carrier foil from 300,000 square meters per month to 450,000 square meters per month in August 2007. The company is still exploring further expansion possibilities which will depend on how the market reacts.

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.

Survey of 24 major copper smelteries in China conducted by Ieforex shows that 90 percent of copper smelting enterprises in China are not optimistic about the future copper market, and are waiting for financial environment going stable.

The world's metals producers are still looking to China as the panacea for all ills with the often expressed hope that the country's need to support the domestic metals smelting, refining and steel industries will be the saviour of this sector and supply sufficient demand to support prices in the West. Consequently Chinese data are followed intensely and the latest information suggests that copper, iron ore and steel demand are holding up well - indeed increasing substantially - while aluminium is flat and zinc and lead suffering. But Chinese data requires interpretation and can be misleading as pointed out by Macquarie's Bonnie Liu in her latest China Commodities Weekly research note, and she concludes that there has to be some doubt that the latest extremely strong figures can be maintained. The notes below are abstracted from Macquarie's latest China Commodities Weekly and give us some considerable food for thought.

With a view to cutting operating costs, Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. are planning to combine their copper and alloy businesses. The new joint venture will consist of equal shares of the two companies and will be Japan's biggest brass strip maker. Major end-use applications include terminals and connectors for cars and electronic components. According to the plan, the joint venture will cease some sales units and purchase raw materials on a joint basis. It is anticipated that annual cost savings will amount to 1B yen (US$10M).

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.