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A recent survey by the Shanghai Metals Market of 21 major Chinese copper plate, sheet, strip and foil producers, with a total capacity of 966,200t/y, showed that operating rates in February fell to 42%, as factories shut for the Chinese New Year holiday. Copper flat-rolled producers closed facilities as migrant workers returned to their homes and did not come back to work until after the lantern festival in late February. Survey participants were reporting better levels of demand post holiday as end-users such as the automotive industry and the lithium ion battery industry increased production. Survey participants expect utilisation to increase to around 60% in March.

CEF, the Brazilian government controlled development bank, announced on 4th January that it is purchasing a 17.2% stake in smelter and semis producer Paranapanema from the Brazilian development bank BNDES. Paranapanema is primarily involved in the smelting and production of semi-finished copper products for the Brazilian and South American market, including copper tube, wires, bars and strips.

Yangzhou Baosheng Copper Industry, a large Chinese manufacturer of wire and cable, announced on 12th December that it had placed an order with Germany's SMS Meer for a CONTIROD system to be installed at its plant in Baoying, Jiangsu province. The new system, which has a capacity of 48t/h, will come into action in 2014 and will enable the company to expand its range of products.

According to an annual survey from Antaike, operating rates at Chinese copper fabricators were on average 2.66 percentage points lower in 2012 than in 2011. The sector that saw the largest slow down in utilisation was the copper tube sector, down 7.27 percentage points in 2012, due to low operating rates in air conditioner sector denting the demand for copper tube in China. Wire manufacturers and foil manufacturers were reported to have fared better in 2012, with utilisation rates rising modestly.

Henan-based Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube (Henan Golden Dragon), the world's largest manufacturer of commercial copper tube, will open a new 30,000t/y high precision copper tube factory in July 2013. Henan Golden Dragon begun production of the facility in May 2012 and have invested a total of RMB 380M (USD60.5M). The factory will produce high precision copper tube.

It was reported that Shandong Xiangrui Copper Semis Co. Ltd. bought a new 320,000t/y copper semis production facility into full operation during late August. The plant produces a variety of products. It's capacity includes 95,000t/y of copper wirerod, 100,000t/y of copper strip, 20,000t/y of overhead railway conductors and 10,500t/y of bare copper wire. Contirod continuous casting technology from Germany will be used for the process.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association released an estimate of the total domestic fabrication of copper and copper alloy products in November, which showed that production fell by 10.4% y-o-y to 65,940t. Copper strip production amounted to 18,240t, down by 18% in November and has experienced year-on-year declines for twelve consecutive months. The segment was negatively impacted by weak demand from the semiconductor and electronic industries since autumn 2011. Conversely, brass strip output rose by 3.3% y-o-y to reach 9,895t in November supported by a rebounding automotive sector. Copper tube output in November amounted to 9,895t, down by 20% y-o-y, due to base year effects caused by a rise in production after the hot summer in 2010 (the November level is higher than the same month of 2009). Brass bar output contracted by 5.3% y-o-y in November to reach 14,993t attributed to weak end-use demand from the Japanese construction and electrical sectors, especially in the latter half of this year.

Hubei Environmental Protection Department and Huangshi Environmental Protection Bureau have approved Chinalco Central China Copper Co., Ltd's 135,000t/y copper plate and strip plant. The mill was put into production this year and involved a total estimated investment of RMB1.7B.

Operations have commenced at Anhui Jingcheng Copper Share Co. Ltd.'s high precision copper plate and strip project. The new facility will manufacture 30,000t/y of material.

Anhui Jingcheng Copper announced that is has commissioned its high precision copper plate and strip operation. The plant will produce 30,000t/y of material.

Jingcheng Copper stated that it anticipates to make a loss in H1 2012 on low utilisation rates at its recently commissioned 30,000t/y high precision copper sheet and strip plant in Wuhu City, Anhui province, and poor Chinese demand. The company expects profits to be down 70-90% from RMB838M in H1 20122. Jingcheng Copper produced over 83,000t of copper sheet and strip in 2011.

Aurubis AG, the Germany-headquartered refined copper cathode and copper products fabricator, reported a weak performance in sales of copper products in the first quarter of this year. In Q1, the outputs of wirerod; pre-rolled strip; continuous cast shapes; rolled products and speciality wire reached 179,000t, 41,000t, 47,000t and 60,000t, down by 17% y-o-y, down by 15% y-o-y, up by 2% y-o-y and up by 329% y-o-y, respectively. Generally, the seasonal upswing in Q2 was weaker than expected, however, there was a mixture of performances in the sectors within each market, as some wirerod market sectors ordered strongly but European semi-fabricators and customers of strip and speciality wire continued to order shrinking quantities at late notice.

Aurubis reported a growth outlook for its copper products business unit. The company said that the performance of copper wirerod depends upon the progress of power grid expansion projects in Europe. The automotive sector is expected to continue to support growing wirerod sales for the next few months, however the enamelled wire industry is expected to remain weak attributed to poor demand in southern Europe. North American demand is anticipated to support growth in shipments of copper shapes as well as the company's market for flat copper products. In this regard, the US electronics and electrical industry, engine cooling and distribution segments are expected to continue improving. Stagnant European and Asian demand for flat copper products will partially undermine growth in North America. The company added that it does not anticipate the Asian copper products market to recover until the end of Summer 2012, at which time, demand in the US is expected to be good and demand from European-based operations will be recovering.

Undisclosed Chinese copper fabricators reported that they plan to increase copper purchases after the summer. A representative from a copper commercial tube fabricator based in Henan province reported that the company is planning to buy more than 10,000 tonnes of copper cathode in September compared to a few thousand in July and August. In addition to term supplies booked late in 2009 for deliveries in 2010, the company will need to buy in the spot market more than 10,000 tonnes of refined copper per month in Q4 2010 because of additional customer orders. The tube maker has seen its best year yet, supported by strong demand from air-conditioner manufacturers. As a result, its copper commercial tube output is expected to rise by 15% y-o-y in 2010. A source from a copper rod producer located in Guangdong province said that some overseas clients were placing additional orders for September and October. The company uses 14,000-15,000 tonnes of refined copper per month and is likely to increase spot imports to meet extra demand. Another fabricator, which uses 70,000 tonnes of refined copper per annum to produce copper rod, plate and strip, mentioned that the Anhui-based company has a full order book for the rest of the year. Thin copper strip, consumed by the electronics industry, registered the strongest growth. Backed by strong demand, the company managed to raise its product prices to cover increased copper costs. In addition, Chinese power cable output has stayed firm and mostly unaffected by Beijing's policy controls on the property sector. Power cable production rose by 23.2% y-o-y to 14.1 million kilometres in the first seven months of the year. It was also reported that copper semis production increased by 14.5% y-o-y to 6.1 million tonnes in the same period.

Mitsui Sumitomo Metal Mining Brass & Copper, a Japanese brass and copper alloy strip fabricator, plans to produce an average of 5,450t/m in H2 FY2010-2011, ending in March 2011. The company holds client orders of several hundred tonnes until the end of 2010 and considers that demand will be steady. However, it remains cautious about demand from the automotive industry as it may decline in early 2011. According to production plans, H2 FY2010-2011 output in Saitama, Japan, will amount to 3,600t/m whilst that in Mie, Japan, to 1,850t/m. Actual production in H1 FY2010-2011 reached 5,400t/m (3,600t/m in Saitama and 1,800t/m in Mie). It was reported that the automotive industry accounts for 45% of the company's output. Automotive makers are expected to cut their output by 20%, now that the Japanese government's eco-friendly car subsidy scheme has ended. As a result, automotive component makers are anticipated to cut production by 5-10%. To respond to that possible downturn, Mitsui Sumitomo Metal Mining plans to increase sales to consumer electronic product manufacturers.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association announced on July 25th that Japanese rolled copper output fell 1% to 504,455 tonnes in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2007. This is the second year in a row that has seen a decline in output. With building activity slow, buyers minimized purchase to avoid price change risk with the fluctuation of copper ingot, leading to the output fall. Copper strip and brass strip saw a 3.4% increase to 137,005 tonnes and 6.5% rise to 67,900 tonnes respectively over the same period due to higher demand from the automobile sector. Brass bar and copper tube output both fell in H1 on prior year. The slow building market saw brass bar output decrease 4.6% to 113,532 tonnes while an increase in offshore production from Japanese air conditioning manufacturers led to an 8.2% decrease in copper tube output to 82,843 tonnes.