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According to the General Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, it is a misconception to that 50-60% of copper is absorbed by China's power industry. The industry body posits that 30% of copper consumption is attributed to infrastructure projects, which include power, rail and telecommunications. 21% is absorbed by the construction, 20% for the production of consumer goods and 7% by industrial equipment manufacturers. The research institute forecasts copper consumption growth of 5% in the power industry this year and considers it to be the key driving force behind overall Chinese copper demand, which it expects to increase 4.1% in the same period.

Xingye Copper International Group plans to commission its 25,000t/y copper plate and strip project in Zhejiang province by 2014. The company already operates a copper and copper alloy plate and strip plant.

Carrots are more appealing than sticks - and sometimes just as effective. That, at least, is the message that Europe's big telecoms operators have successfully delivered to European policy makers in Brussels. Late last week, Neelie Kroes, EU telecoms commissioner, backed down on her threat to make owners of old-style copper networks - the likes of France Telecom or Telefónica - lower the price at which they grant access to smaller rivals unless investment in high-speed fibre networks is stepped up. Instead, the Dutch politician, who estimates EU broadband investment needs at €270bn, promised regulatory "stability and consistency". True, she plans stricter rules to ensure equal access to networks. But for incumbent telcos, that is like being poked by a twig compared with the big baton of lower access charges.

El Sewedy Cables said that profits surged by 53% y-o-y to 270 million Egyptian pounds in Q2 2010 (US$47 million), beating analysts' forecasts. The company engages in the production of cables for the power and telecommunication sectors. It was reported that because other cable makers had cut output due to the recession, El Sewedy was offered the opportunity to boost exports and increase profit margins in 2010. The company has production facilities in Egypt and 10 other countries, and exports to the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Portugal, eastern European countries and Brazil.

The market for Ethernet over Copper is about to take off after a period of trial deployments.

SureWest had said it was contemplating such services when the company began offering broadband via bonded ADSL2+ in its incumbent territory last fall, including 10-megabit-per-second services. The company already offers IPTV through its fiber-to-the-premises network, but its bonded ADSL2+ customers have so far only had access to SureWest's voice and data services. (The company has offered IPTV over copper on a very limited basis even before it began line bonding. It offers IPTV over copper to about 2500 customers today, mostly to those with short loops and modest standard-definition video needs.) The new copper-based IPTV services, which will be available to 15,000 homes in December and another 10,000 by next June, are enabled in part by the company's recent switch from Minerva middleware to Microsoft's Mediaroom and by its use of MPEG-4 encoding for video compression.

IF YOU want to save money, cut the cord. In these difficult times ever more Americans are heeding this advice and dropping their telephone landlines in favour of mobile phones (see article). Despite some of the flakiest mobile-network coverage in the developed world, one in four households has now gone mobile-only. At current rates the last landline in America will be disconnected sometime in 2025.

Hitachi Cable Ltd., has set out its new medium-term management plan known as the Renewed Plan "BRIDGE" with additional management measures. The company said under the new plan, key measures for business structure reforms included; the consolidation of its domestic sales companies, regional offices and branch offices, with the consolidated company taking operational control of all its existing manufacturing companies; the withdrawal from the optical submarines cable business, restructuring of its telecommunications cable business, review of packaging materials operations and a review of its copper tubes business; consolidations and eliminations of group companies in southeast Asia and consolidation of group companies in Europe and North America by country. This is in addition to a reduction in staff at domestic companies which is expected to involve some 1200 staff. The company will also implement measures to reduce fixed expenses. This includes a review of the company's pension system, an operational review of employee facilities including company dormitories, company housing, etc., and the sale of some of these facilities. The Hitachi Group aims to boost sales in priority target areas as a percentage of net sales from 55% in fiscal 2011 to 65% in fiscal 2016.