Russia Copper Corp. (RCC), a Russia-based integrated producer of copper cathode and wirerod, said that there will be a steep rise in exports of copper cathode from 2015. The company expects Russia to cancel its 10% (variable on copper price) export duty on copper cathodes from 2015 as a prerequisite for its accession to the World Trade Organisation. RCC added that the cost incurred in producing wirerod is around $130/t and the average cost to send it abroad in Q1 2012 was $250/t, whereas the estimated cost of sending cathode abroad was $850/t in that period.

Encore Wire, a major producer of building wire in USA, reported that shipment volumes by metal weight contracted by 4% y-o-y in Q2 2012, mainly attributed to the continuing recession in the US construction industry. The company said that its performance by shipment volume should be measured against changes in the spread between the price of wire sold and the cost of raw materials. This metric decreased by 10.1% y-o-y in Q2. Encore further added that the drop in volumes was related to attempts to lead or maintain pricing levels, while not accepting some lower margin orders.

Wood Mackenzie, a commodities consultancy, said that amongst weak copper consumption in Europe a bright spot is in the demand for wind turbines and the associated subsea cable. The consultancy believes that this sector uses 3.6 tonnes of copper per megawatt of generation capacity and estimates that 22,000t of copper will be consumed in wind turbines in Western Europe in 2012. A European directive for all countries to produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020 is said to be accelerating growth in green power. Germany are the largest producer of wind turbine sourced electricity, as renewable account for 25% of energy production and wind power is the largest component. Great Britain, the Nordic region and Spain are also expanding their wind power capacity, mainly through offshore wind parks.

Wood Mackenzie predicts that overall European copper demand will decline by 5% in 2012 to reach 4Mt. This is attributed to weak economic growth together with a prolonged debt crisis.

General Cable reported a rise in sales volume by metal weight of 2% q-o-q (+5% y-o-y) in Q2 2012 due to demand in France and the Mediterranean as well as stable demand in most ROW and North American businesses. Bright spots for demand included: ongoing grid investment and the resultant demand for medium voltage cables in France; stronger demand from telephone and electric utility businesses in North America; improving domestic conditions following the Q3/4 2011 severe flooding in Thailand; and strong mining activity in Chile.

It was reported that Zhejiang Hailiang Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of copper semi fabricated products, intends to acquire a 1.12% stake in the Chinese copper and nickel producer, Jinchuan Group. Hailiang expects to invest RMB800M (US$126M) into the producer company as it readies for its upcoming IPO in China. The move toward greater upstream copper processing exposure was attributed to risks associated with Hailiang's high dependence on copper products fabrication and Jinchuan's experience in managing overseas assets.

Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. announced that its magnet wire producing subsidiary Furukawa Magnet Wire has co-developed a rectangular magnet wire with a voltage resistance of up to 1,400-1,500V. The higher voltage rating and shape factor is believed to make the cable suitable for motors within small hybrid energy vehicles (HEVs) or electric vehicles (EVs). The company is supplying Toyota with this magnet wire for use in its 'AQUA' HEV. Furukawa will expand monthly production at its plant in Mie, Japan by 50% to 300t in this fiscal year to meet demand from rising production of AQUA and to supply other HEV/EV manufacturers.

According to Ukraine's State Statistics Committee, wire and cable production in the first five months of 2012 was down by 3.7% y-o-y. Insulated winding wire production during the period was up by 600t to reach 5,300t, however low voltage energy (less than 1kV) and power cable fabrication were down by 6.4% y-o-y and 86.4% y-o-y, respectively reaching 197,700km and 2,200km .

General Cable announced that it will acquire a 60% stakeholding in Procables S.A. for US$45M subject to terms and regulatory approval. Procables offers a wide range of cable products including energy cables, communication cables and bare aluminium conductor. The company also operates copper and aluminium wirerod mills at its manufacturing sites in Bogota and Barranquilla, Colombia.

Outokumpu, the Finnish stainless steel producer, sold its last remaining copper processing facility to Bons & Evers holding BV, a privately owned Dutch metals company. The facility produces brass rod, employing 170 people, located in Drunen, Netherlands. Bons & Evers produces hot-forged and machined brass products and has production facilities in: Borne, NL; Voehrenbach, DE; Geisingen, DE; Esvres, FR; Herzberg, DE.

According to a survey conducted by the Copper & Brass Servicenter Association, a US-based trade group, US servicenter shipments of copper and brass products amounted to 22.7Mlbs (10,297t) in April, down by 7.0% m-o-m and down by 0.9% y-o-y. The m-o-m decline was largely attributed to weaker demand for 300-series brass rod and bar, as shipments declined by 9.9%, reaching 5.2Mlbs. Servicenters enjoyed a good Q1 as shipment levels rose to reach 72.7Mlbs (32,736t), up by 4.2% y-o-y, with the peak of the quarter occurring in March, just as it did in 2011. Over 50% of servicecenters surveyed believed that incoming orders will stay at the same level in June-August 2012 as they were in March-May 2012.

SDI-La Farga's joint venture wirerod project, which will have the capacity to produce 82,000t/y of copper wirerod once made fully operational after its scheduled Q2 2012 start-up, will use No. 2 Birch Cliff scrap as its primary feedstock. No. 2 Birch Cliff is a mix of wire and tubing with 96% copper content. This scrap material is popular amongst China copper consumers, fuelling speculation that the new US operation will lead to a narrowing of US scrap discounts and questioning whether it can compete in a market with a lower cathode-scrap margin.

China's Zhengteng Group, based in Guangdong province, will begin construction of a 150,000t/y copper products project in H2 2012. The operation will produce oxygen-free copper wirerod, copper busbars, tubes and wires beginning in H2 2012 from a facility located in Yushan County, Shangrao City in Jiangxi province. Investment capital for the project is expected to total RMB 1.5B.

A spokesperson for Xstrata expressed the company's expectation of improved copper demand from China in the imminent future at a Latin American investment conference in Sydney on 22nd May. The company expects to see a seasonal uptick in H2 2012 and said that the poor demand in Q1 was in line with its prior expectations. Xstrata intends to invest US$7B in the development of copper deposits over the next three years, increasing its copper output by approximately 60%. This bold move comes at a time when some of the company's rivals, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, are reconsidering their expansion plans over fears of unstable copper demand in the current economic climate.

According to preliminary data from the Japan Copper and Brass Association, Japan's April shipments of rolled copper declined by 8.1% y-o-y, to 64,914t. The fall in production was attributed to poor demand from the electronics sector, despite robust consumption by the automotive industry. Nevertheless, shipments of rolled copper increased 3.2% m-o-m.

Sindicel, an association for the Brazilian non-ferrous metals consumption industry, released figures indicating that Brazil's semi-fabricated copper product output was down by 2.6% y-o-y, reaching 396,900t (copper content) in 2011. Wirerod production accounted for 237,000t in 2011, up by 1.2% y-o-y, whereas brass mill output by copper content was 133,500t in 2011, down by 10.2% y-o-y. Capacity increases in both the wirerod and brass mill product sectors resulted in utilisation rates of 47% and 66%, respectively in 2011. These were down on the production capacity utilisation rates of the respective sectors in Brazil in 2010, which were 52% and 77%.

Southwire Co. Inc., a US cablemaker with a focus on building wire production, said that the US residential construction industry has bottomed-out after near-continuous contraction since being heavily impacted by the global economic crisis in late-2008. The company said that it is now necessary to use statistics on housing area under construction in order to analyse and pre-empt demand as government figures on housing starts cause an overestimation of the strength of the recovery in wire and cable demand. This is due to homebuilders more frequently electing to construct smaller homes, requiring less wire and cable than average-sized homes.

Hengyuan Copper Co. Ltd., based in Shandong province, has started up commercial production of a newly installed 20,000t copper tube line. The company invested RMB380M in the line and expects to invest a further RMB581M to initially add a 10,000t/y copper wire line and then follow this with 170,000t/y of new copper products capacity for low oxygen copper wirerod and bar lines. The project is expected to reach completion by the end of 2014.

Nexans SA, NKT Holdings and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a previous owner of Prysmian SpA, are due to attend a hearing on 11-18th June 2012 as part of the European Commission's (EC) probe into an alleged underground and submarine high voltage power cable cartel. The EC received official complaints about 12 companies in July 2011. The maximum fine for colluding to fix prices is 10% of yearly sales revenue.

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.