Belden Inc, the NYSE-listed wire and cable manufacture, announced on 29th November that it is selling two of its business arms, Thermax and Raydex, to Carlisle Companies Inc for US$265M. The two companies, which make cable for the aerospace and defence industries, are expected to be sold by 31st December 2012. Belden Inc said the disposals were "in the interests of shareholders" and announced a US$200M share buyback alongside the announcement, indicating the proceeds of the sale will be largely returned to shareholders rather than re-invested.

Speaking at an industry conference on 29th November, Wu Yuneng, the deputy general manager of China's largest integrated copper producer Jiangxi Copper, said that he expects China to continue to drive the global demand for copper in the coming years. Mr Wu cited the fact that urbanisation rates remain below the 60% levels seen in developed markets as the reason for his view. He also said that he believes copper demand in China has a lot of room to rise in the next ten years, stating that copper consumption in China is around 5.7kg per head which is well below the developed market average of 10kg per person.

Shenzhen-listed wire and cable producer Qingdao Hanhe Cable Co announced on 27th November that it has won a contract to supply cables to the State Grid Corporation of China as part of a fifth round of contract tendering. The contract, worth RMB81.8M (US$13M), will involve the supplying 220KV cable as well as 20.304 KM of 500V cable. In a separate announcement the company said it was selling its 51% stake in Tianjin Hydraulic Machinery and using the funds to invest in the research and development of competitive products.

Gaisky GOK, a subsidiary of UMMC, the Russian miner and producer of copper semis, announced on 26th November that its net revenue for the first nine months of the year increased by 6.89% to RUB12.28B (US$395M). However, the company's net profit fell by 6.4%, to RUB2.53B (US$81M) in the same period compared to a year before. Gaisky GOK is based at the Gaisky field and controls three quarters of the copper reserves in the Orenbursky region of Russia. UMMC manufactures semis products from its Kirov non-ferrous plant and recently acquired a new round rolled production line from German company TUF-CERT according to its website.

LS Cable & Systems, the world's third largest manufacturer of wire and cable, reaffirmed on 23rd November that it is seeking to become the world's largest wire and cable manufacturer by 2020, and that it is targeting the value-added cable market in India as part of its strategy. The company, which according to chief executive officer Koo Cha-yol "has 33 manufacturing firms, 64 operational bases and four research centers in 26 countries," generates 60% of its sales abroad. LS Cables & Systems has been expanding these overseas sales through acquisitions, in recent years buying American cable maker Magnet Wire in 2008, and Chinese cable maker Hongchi in 2011, giving it access to the world's largest markets.

Kobelco, a diversified Japanese group with interests ranging from copper to construction machinery, announced on 19th November that it is licensing one of its leading copper alloy products, used in terminals and connectors, to German firm Wieland. The company said that the deal would allow it "to establish a global supply network for copper alloys, especially for automotive applications." The announcement marks the second time Kobelco have expanded their global presence in the copper alloys market through such an agreement, with the company licensing the same technology to Aurubis Buffalo Inc for US manufacturing and distribution in 2008.

HL Technology, a listed Chinese producer of wire and cables, announced on 20th November that it plans to sell its 55% stake in Tianjin Rituo Automotive Electronics to Wang Xiang, for RMB58.6M (US$9.3M), stating that the venture had not been as profitable as expected. The company also announced it is acquiring the entire equity in a separate company, Rituo High Technology, from Rituo Automotive Electronics for RMB15M (US$2.4M). Rituo High Technology researches, designs and manufactures wiring harness components such as the wires used for signal transmission. By purchasing Rituo High Technology, HL Technology said it hopes to develop its own wholly owned subsidiary in the wiring harness sector.

According to data from the Japanese Wire and Cable Makers' Association, shipments from Japanese wire and cable producers declined 0.8% y-o-y in October, taking total shipments to 60,000t. Japanese wire and cable manufacturers have been seeking to boost sales overseas and outside of traditional telecoms and power sectors. Last week, Furukawa Electric announced plans to invest in infrastructure to generate more sales in the auto industry, while Hitachi Cable announced a tie-up with sister company Hitachi Metals and a greater focus on export markets in a bid to restructure and boost sales.

An October survey of 21 Chinese copper plate, sheet, strip and foil producers, with a annual capacity of 984,200t/y, showed that operating rates fell to 56.40% in October, down 1.13 percentage points from September. The survey also reported that raw materials inventories held by producers fell to 20.08% of production, down 4.61 percentage points from September. The survey cited sluggish demand from European and US markets as a factor weighing on PSSF demand, and said the orders ahead of the Christmas period were still low. The survey also highlighted producer pessimism about the copper price as a factor in lower raw materials stock holdings.

SuperPower Inc, a subsidiary of Furukawa Electric, announced on 7th December that it plans to double the production capacity of superconducting wirerod at its US plant in 2013. The company said it anticipates demand for the wirerod, which is used in areas such as superconducting magnetic energy storage, will increase over the next four to five years, and that it is intending to raise production to meet the new demand.

The US-based Copper and Brass Servicenter Association, a trade group representing primarily North American brass mills, reported that shipments of brass mills products amounted to 19.68Mlb (8,927t) in September, a decline of 14.9% from August and an annual decline of 8.1%. Shipments of copper sheet fell by 21.7% m-o-m or 961,000lb to 3.45Mlb (436t to 1,565t) and copper rod declined by 14.4% m-o-m or 807,000lb to 4.77Mlb (366t to 2,164t). Shipments of brass sheet and alloy tube also registered declines in September compared to the previous month, 6.9% m-o-m and 37.4% m-o-m respectively. The survey reported that half of participants expected orders to fall in the coming quarter compared to the previous quarter. When asked about lead times, half of the suppliers surveyed reported that their lead times had shortened in September compared to the previous three months.

As part of ongoing restructuring efforts, Japanese wire and cable maker Hitachi Cables, which focuses on the areas of electricity and information transmission, announced on 13th November that it will merge with sister company Hitachi Metals. Hitachi Metals manufactures functional materials in the automobiles, electronics and industrial infrastructure sectors according to a joint statement. The merged company will concentrate on "producing synergies" and expanding overseas sales, concentrating on "industrial and information infrastructure and automobile and electronics-related industries". The Hitachi Group as a whole has a target of generating 50% of sales outside of Japan, a figure which Hitachi Cables has yet to reach.

Data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs on 13th November showed that imports of copper, including alloys and semis, totalled 321,879t in October, 16.1% lower than the same period last year. October's imports of copper, which cover a period including an extended national holiday, were the lowest in 15 months.

A Shanghai Metals Market survey of Chinese wirerod producers showed that operating rates at 21 domestic producers, with capacity of 3.5Mt/y, fell to 69.02% in October, a decrease of 2.33% m-o-m, and 14.4% y-o-y. The report cited the extended October national day holiday and maintenance at one large domestic wirerod producer as reasons for the decline. The release also showed that wirerod producers held lower raw materials stocks in October at 16.02% of production, down from 17.21% of production in September. Finally producers' inventories of finished goods increased to 15.80% of production in October from 5.58% of production in September as the above-mentioned large wirerod producer increased stocks prior to its maintenance shutdown.

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.

Belden Inc., the US wiring manufacturer that generates the majority of its revenue from the industrial sector, announced on 8th November an increase in revenues of 1.9% q-o-q to US$ 519.7M. In an accompanying presentation, the company highlighted that the amount of revenue from their wiring division declined by 1 percentage point in Q3 from a year earlier. Commenting on the results, CEO John Stroup said that he was proud of the results but he noted that "the weak demand environment presents challenges and the uncertainty affects our visibility."

General Cable Corporation announced on 5th November that it had completed its acquisition of Prestolite Wire LLC, the wire & cable and wiring harnesses producer. Prestolite Wire, which reported revenues of US$170M in 2011, has two production sites based in the USA and Mexico and manufactures predominately for the transport sector. Commenting on the acquisition, General Cable said that the Prestolite Wire is "highly complementary to our existing transportation related businesses as approximately 90% of Prestolite's revenues are generated from products that are incremental to the Company's existing product portfolio."

Toyota Motor Corporation announced on 5th November a sharp increase in H1 2012 revenues of 36.1% y-o-y compared with the same period in 2011. The increase was largely due to base effects associated with last year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami. As part of the announcement, Toyota revised up their annual profit forecasts to JPY1.05T from JPY1.0T (US$13.29B from US$12.66B). However, Toyota revised down overall expected 2012/13 car sales by 50,000 units. This was driven by downward revisions to Asian and European sales forecasts, 50,000 and 40,000 units, to 1.73M and 790,000 units respectively. North America was a bright spot for Toyota, with expectations for full year North American automobile sales revised up by 20,000 units to 2.4M vehicles.

TataAutoComp Ltd announced on 5th November that it is exiting its wire harness joint venture Tata Yazaki Autocomp. The Pune-based manufacturer of wiring harnesses, the second largest producer in the Indian market with a share of 16%, generates the largest portion of its revenue from sales to Tata motors. Japanese based Yazaki Corp, the joint venture partner, will now purchase the outstanding 50% of the company held by TataAutoComp.

On 1st November, Furukawa Electric Company announced further details about plans to increase profits by JPY18B (US$226M) by 2015. The company aims to do this through consolidation of their copper wirerod and optical cables division and pulling out of some areas including winding wire. The company will also move production of copper foil and electric wires overseas. Furukawa Electric cited the mature Japanese market and limited opportunities for growth in this market as reasons for the restructuring.