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It was reported that Furukawa Electric, the Japan-based copper products manufacturer, has approved to invest NT$450M (US$15.46M) in Taiwan-based projects. The decision involves production facilities in Taiwan for the fabrication of rolled copper foil to be used in printed circuit boards and lithium batteries. The plan is partly attributed to the appreciation of the Japanese yen and the impact of the recent devastating earthquake.

Furukawa Electric announced that it will commission a new electrolytic copper foil factory, located in Taiwan, two months ahead of schedule, in July 2012. The facility is designed to produce copper foil suitable for the manufacture of lithium ion batteries. Furukawa decided to offshore the foil production capacity last year because the appreciated yen had been limiting its competitiveness in supplying the high growth automotive lithium-ion battery market in Taiwan. The company expects to halve its electricity costs in Taiwan, which represent 30% of the total cost of electrolytic foil production in Japan. Furthermore, it is feared that these costs in Japan are likely to escalate with the ongoing strain on power generation and transmission suppliers. This was caused by the continuing temporary closure of nuclear power facilities as it reviews its position on the use of nuclear power generation.

Fujikura Ltd, the Japanese wire and cable manufacturer, announced on 4th February that it will cut 300 staff as part of an effort to restructure its business units. The company said it will reorganise its business into three units; energies/telecoms, electronics and automotive electronic components. The company also said that it will seek to consolidate its Japanese business in 2013 by cutting staff, whilst reinforcing its automotive components businesses and growing its overseas businesses. Fujikura Ltd announced that it is revising down its estimates for 2012 operating revenue by JPY1B (USD10.8M) to JPY7B(USD75.5M).

Furukawa Electric Co. announced recently that it has closed its Tochigi-based Imaichi No.1 copper foil plant. The operation, which had been producing electrolytic copper foil for use in circuit boards in the electronics industry, will be moved to Taiwan to reduce costs. The company cited reduced profitability and rising electricity prices as reasons for the decision. The company also announced it will shut most of its operations at its Imaichi No. 2 plant by the end of September.

Rohm and Haas Company has reported second quarter 2008 sales of $2,567 million, a 17% increase over the same period in 2007, with Electronic Materials and the chemical businesses outside North America delivering strong growth. The Electronic Materials Group comprises two reportable segments which provide materials for use in applications such as telecommunications, consumer electronics and household appliances. Sales for the Electronic Materials Group were $536 million in the second quarter of 2008, up 34% over the same period in 2007, reflecting the impact of acquisitions in Display Technologies as well as solid organic growth of Electronic Technologies. The Electronic Technologies segment is comprised of the company's Semiconductor Technologies, Circuit Board Technologies and Packaging and Finishing Technologies business units. Sales for the segment of $460 million were up 16% versus the second quarter of 2007, driven by strong growth in Asia for all business units. Sales in the second quarter excluding precious metals pass-through sales were up 15%. Semiconductor Technologies sales grew 13%, reflecting strong demand and favorable currencies, particularly in the Asia Pacific Region. Circuit Board Technologies sales increased 20% as compared to the same period last year, with solid growth in the Asia Pacific Region more than offsetting declines in North America. Packaging and Finishing Technologies sales rose 20% versus last year, primarily driven by strong growth in precious metal sales and in process sales. Adjusted pre-tax earnings for this segment of $107 million were up 11% from the second quarter of 2007, reflecting increased demand and favorable currencies, partially offset by higher metal costs and increased costs related to expansion efforts, including the new Asia Technical Center in Taiwan.\n\n\n

Growth in Asia is illustrated from this reporting at multiple levels of business - Opportunities are available for copper in a multitude of applications.

Power, it is universally acknowledged, is shifting to Asia. What that really means, however, is that the continent's biggest countries, China and India, are at last modernizing and achieving sustained economic development, just as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan did before them. With their development comes increased influence, importance, and capabilities. All this will make the old-established powers of the West no less capable, influential, or important-but they will be a lot less dominant.

Furukawa Electric announced that it will triple its output capacity for copper foil used in lithium ion batteries to 1,500t per month in 2013. The company will build a new factory with monthly capacity of 500t of foil in the western Taiwanese county of Yunlin. Investment will amount to 6.9bn yen and production is expected to begin in September 2012, gradually being brought up to speed by July 2013. Furukawa Electric has a factory nearby that makes copper foil for circuit boards, and therefore it will be able to procure supplies for both. In addition, the company said that electric power costs in Taiwan are half as expensive compared to Japan, and that will make it competitive in the growing segment of automotive lithium ion batteries. Furukawa Electric will consider exporting foil for lithium ion batteries from Taiwan to China, South Korea and elsewhere. Furthermore, 100ml yen will be spent in order to revamp spare equipment at the existing copper foil factory in Nikko, Japan. That will enable the plant to raise capacity by 80% to 1,000t per month by March 2012.

Taiwanese end-use sectors that consume copper semis will be impacted by the earthquake in Japan, according to the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Centre. End-use sectors that will face a disruption in the supply or raw materials and parts include display panels, semiconductors, machinery equipment and solar cells. Major Japanese fabricators of electrodeposited copper foil and rolled copper foil JX Nippon Mining & Metals and Hitachi Cable have factories in areas that have been impacted by the earthquake.

Furukawa Electric Co, the Japanese maker of wire, cable and copper semis announced on 15th April that it will consolidate its copper plate and strip business at its Nikko Offices. Company President Mitsuyoshi Shibata indicated that the company was taking contingencies for 10% drop in demand for copper sheets and strips, including consolidating finishing mills and casting lines. The company is in the midst of a large restructuring taking steps including closing its magnet wires business and off-shoring copper foil production to Taiwan.

The Japan Copper & Brass Association reported Japanese copper rolled product import fell by 2.5% y-o-y to 50,057t in the fiscal year ending March 2008. While volume of import was still high, it has fallen y-o-y the first time since the fiscal year ending March 2002. Copper tube import decreased by 19% y-o-y to 10,661t, partly due to the slowdown of new housing starts after the Japanese imposed new building standard law. Biggest importers to Japan are reported to be South Korea, China, Germany, Taiwan and North America.

According to the Japan Copper and Brass Association, total production of copper and copper alloy semis fell by 4.1% y-o-y to 72,770t in July. Output also contracted by 0.5% m-o-m in July, a second consecutive monthly decline. The fall is attributed in large part to the struggling automotive sector, which has been strongly impacted by the 11th March disaster.

Production for domestic shipments contracted by 6.6% y-o-y to reach 51,112t, whilst output for export markets fell more rapidly in January, reaching 8,898t after a 23.1% y-o-y decline (this however, was narrower than the December drop in exports of 30.7% y-o-y). Copper strip still represented the most heavily produced brass mill semi-fabricated product (27.7% of overall production in gross weight) but output decreased by 11.3% y-o-y, amounting to 16,600t in January. This was principally attributed to weak interconnector demand, the impact of the flooding in Thailand and the highly appreciated yen affecting the export market. Copper tube output decreased by 14.5% y-o-y to 9,750t in January, on weak demand from air conditioner manufacturers caused by bad weather and a slow world economy. Brass bar production fell by 7.7% y-o-y but rose by 900t since December to reach 14,206t in January. The change was attributed to improving demand from the domestic automotive and plumbing sectors.

The Y. S. Sun Green Building Research Center, which costs TWD87,000 ($296,1) per 36 square feet, adopts 13 different green building design methods, including five natural ventilation energy-saving methods, two equipment reduction methods, and five equipment energy-saving technologies and renewable energy technologies.

It was reported that Furukawa Electric plans to bring forward its capacity expansion plans for electrolytic copper foil due to steady demand from lithium ion battery makers, especially for electric vehicles. The company had previously announced that domestic capacity would expand from 550t/m to 1,000t/m in March 2012. However, supported by increasing demand from EV battery makers, Furukawa will put the time schedule ahead to December 2011. In addition, the company is planning to accelerate the time schedule for its new electrolytic copper foil plant in Taiwan, which was originally due to commence operations in September 2012.

According to data released by the Ministry of Finance in Japan, exports of refined copper in October increased by 4.2% y-o-y to 39,197t. It was reported that more than a third was dispatched to China. The figure was also up by 4.2% compared with September, supported by recovered demand from the automotive and semiconductor sectors. Shipments to Taiwan amounted for 31.5% of the total, up from 25% in September. South Korea corresponded to 5% of total exports compared to 6% in September.

Japan's Ministry of Finance reported that refined copper exports amounted to 23,760t in May, down by 52% y-o-y. This marks the eighth consecutive monthly y-o-y fall in exports, mainly attributed to consumer destocking in China. Conversely, when compared to the previous month, refined copper exports rose by 0.8%. China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand are the major destinations for Japanese refined copper exports.