Polycab Wires will set up a 50:50 joint venture with Nexans to establish a manufacturing unit in Gujarat. The plant will specialise in the production of elastomeric and extra high voltage (EHV) cables. R. S. Vaidyanathan, president and CEO of Polycab Wires, said that the demand for EHV cables in India will soar and few suppliers will be in a position to meet market needs. He also remarked that the power transmission business in India has not been impacted by the slowdown due to orders placed by the public sector.

Fujian Nanping Sun Cable Co., Ltd. has announced that it will build a 100ktpy copper wirerod project in Shanghang. The company, a cable manufacturer established in 1958, has signed an agreement with the government of the county. The investment will amount to 180 million yuan. According to plans the first stage will be complete by September with output capacity of 30ktpy of 8mm copper wirerod and other wire products. Upon completion of the second stage production capacity will reach 100ktpy.

Chinese refined copper imports in January amounted to 180,500 tonnes, up by 41.3% y-o-y. Copper scrap imports in January declined by 56.2% y-o-y to 184,400 tonnes gross weight. The consumption side of the red metal remains weak as all the major copper consuming industries are in decline. Building construction, the electronics industry, as well as the automotive sector are suffering due to the economic slowdown. As for the power industry, the Chinese government has allocated a 1 trillion yuan package for power grid investment in the next three years.

Standard & Poor has announced that it placed credit ratings for Wolverine Tube Inc. on CreditWatch. The decision includes its 'CC' corporate credit rating and 'C' senior unsecured debt. Wolverine Tube announced its decision regarding an exchange offer of senior notes due 2009 for new ones due 2012. Given the current market conditions and the financial position of the company, this decision raises default risk levels. Standard & Poor will monitor the exchange offer.

Another bad sign for copper demand appeared in the news today. In the UK, Jaguar Land Rover plans to lay off 850 agency workers, mostly IT and engineering staff, at plants in West Midlands and Warwickshire. Staff members at Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Whitley and Gaydon are told that they will lose their jobs by the end of this year. The company claimed the decision as 'responsible and rapid action for the challenging environment it faces'. The company employs 16,000 staff at plants in the region at the moment.

SMS Meer GmbH, a company within the SMS Group, has recently taken over Schumag AG's machinery segment. Since the product ranges of the two companies are complementary, no jobs will be endangered as a consequence of the purchase, a member of the executive board of Schumag said. About 300 of the total 1,000 of Schumag employees will work for the new company, SMS Schumag GmbH & Co. KG. Through the purchase of the Schumag Machinery Segment SMS Meer is expanding its product range and opening up further potential for growth of the SMS group as part of its global presence.

Cumerio Belgium, a subsidiary of Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA), announced on 20th Nov its intention to close a copper billets and cakes production line at the Olen site. The decision was made based on the fact that production volumes in the department have halved over the last seven years and the line is currently losing money due to the low capacity utilisation rate. The company said that high copper prices in the last years had caused significant substitution losses to demand for copper billets and cakes, especially those for sanitary piping and roofing applications.

Linderme Tube was a manufacturer of copper and aluminium products. The company was founded in 1927 and employed some 81 people, mostly residents of Euclid and Cleveland. According to a Linderme spokesman, the company has sold all its assets to Small Tube Products Co. and ended production on 1st October. Small Tube Products is a leading North American producer of copper and specialty alloy tubes. It was acquired by Wolverine Tube in July 1994 and was sold recently based on Wolverine's decision to focus on its core products.

Copper and Brass Servicenter Association (CBSA) reported shipments increased by 1.5% month-on-month in July. The association said the increase was a surprise as July shipments historically follow the trend of the previous month. In July, copper and copper alloy shipments decreased by 2.8% year-on-year while average daily shipping rate went down by 7.2%. Total warehouse inventories dropped by 2.8%. The association also said that it is getting more difficult to search for 'positive economic news' as the months go by.

Cable maker Nexans announced its H1 2008 financial statements on 24th July. The company reported H1 sales dropped by 6.28% year-on-year to €3,554M (US$5,572M) as a result of deliberate reduction of the external sales in the electrical wires business. Operating margin was €220M (US$345M), which is an increase of 18% from same period last year. H1 net income was €119M (US$187M), which was comparatively more stable than the other sectors due to less exposure to tax rate change. Nexans believes that the increased uncertainty in the economic environment had not affected its profitability as operating margin increased to its target amount. It also announced that it has abandoned the plan to sale its automotive cable harnesses business.

Encore Wire's six months ended 30th June 2008 net sales were US$604.6M, an increase of 1.7% from same period last year. The increase appears to be the result of higher prices of building wire. Net income was US$15Mfor the six months ended 30thJune 2008 versus US$26.1M in 2007. In Q2, net sales were US$322.8M versus US$333.6M same period last year. Net income for Q2 was US$1.3M compared to US$19.7M in Q2 2007. Encore Wire said that the slowdown in construction activity in the US continues to impact their business as it has over the last two years. Moreover, a number of competitors in the industry have responded to the downturn by cutting wire prices to maintain market share.

It was reported that high metal prices and inflation at 12% in India will slow copper demand in domestic construction and electrical appliance sectors. However, Indian Copper Development Centre said as the country has ordered all equipment for its power projects, copper demand from the power sector will remain strong. Copper consumption is forecast to grow 8% this year and will reach 1.5Mt of copper in 2012. A similar trend is expected for the country's aluminium demand growth.

Mitsubishi Electric Metecs plans to set up a joint venture in Suzhou, China with Denkishizai and Nippon Steel Trading. The joint venture will produce copper alloy strips which will then be supplied to Japanese and Taiwanese electronic parts makers in China. The estimated production is around 150t/m to 160t/m. Mitsubishi Electric Metecs will hold 75% of the new company, which Denkishizai will hold 20% and Nippon Steel will hold 5%. Previously Mitsubishi Electric Metecs set up another JV in China in 2004 with Denkishizai in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou JV now produces some 150t/m to 160t/m of copper alloy products.

Salzgitter, one of Europe's leading steel and technology corporations has acquired a 5.8% stake in the German copper producer Norddeutsche Affinerie. Both companies have "agreed to investigate medium to long-term opportunities to cooperate for example in the fields of production technology, research and development as well as in procurement and sales for the benefit of both companies". There are currently no further plans for Salzgitter to increase its share in Norddeutsche, the company said.

China's imports of unwrought copper and semi-copper products were down almost 13% month on month in June and by 18% year on year. This downturn in imports is said to have been expected, as June is traditionally a slower month for copper consumption. It does not therefore necessarily mean a downturn in Chinese demand especially as China has been importing increasing amounts of copper concentrates and scrap over the past few months. Over 1.3 million tonnes of unwrought copper and semi-copper products were imported to China in the first six months of 2008, a year on year decrease of 12%. It is believed that stocks have built up in warehouses following too many imports in 2007. Chinese copper imports are however expected to recover towards the end of July and August and will be assisted also by the running down of the built up stocks in the warehouses.

The firm Tanaka Denshi Kogyo, of the Tanaka Kikinzoku Group, has announced it is to expand its output of copper bonding wire to 20 million metres per month, a five-fold increase. The increase will come from an additional production line at the firm's Singapore plant which produces copper bonding wire and from establishing a new production line at the Saga plant in Japan. The company forecasts that the global bonding wire market could double between 2008 and 2010. Copper bonding wire demand could also strengthen as it is a substitute for gold bonding wire, and therefore will benefit whilst the gold price remain high. Tanaka Denshi Kogyo has also recently begun the sale of a new copper bonding wire, TCA1. The firm said that TCA1 is copper wire with a 99.99% purity and a diameter of between 20-70 micrometres. It's price is around a third that of gold bonding wire.

The joint venture established by Prysmian and Tianjin Electromechanical Holdings Group, Prysmian Tianjin Cables Co Ltd, has begun production. The expected annual output from the new group is likely to exceed 10,000 tonnes of special cables mainly for industrial use including the energy and mining sectors. Prysmian has to date invested almost $160 million in the joint venture in China, where Prysmian's current annual turnover is in excess of $235 million. Over the next two years, the company expects growth of over 50% compared to 2008.

Wolverine Tube has announced the sale of its Canadian plumbing tube unit as part of its long-term growth strategy. The sale, worth $42 million, would enable the company to focus "its business and capital on the development and sale of value-added, energy-efficient heat-transfer tubing, fabricated assemblies and metal joining products to market leading customers", the chairman of Wolverine said. Wolverine's debts of over $260 million would be reduced to less than $133 million following the sale, reducing to under $100 million by the end of the year. The company said it's annual revenue would reach around $850 million following the sale and that better economic conditions in 2009 should help to "foster the company's growth".

From January to May 2008, Russia's copper exports decreased year-on-year by over 30% to 82,600 tonnes and from $720 million to $619 million, the Federal Customs Service said. The majority of the copper exports went to countries outside of the CIS. Russia's copper exports rose by 5.3% year-on-year to 283,100 tonnes in 2007.

Superior Essex has announced it is to close its magnet wire plant in Chauny, France at a cost of €12 million ($18.8 million). The plant, which dates back to 1922, was bought by Superior last year and operates under the company's Essex SAS subsidiary. The closure of the plant will bring production capacity in line with demand the company said. Just under $16 million of the charges related to the closure is for employee severance costs with the rest for equipment relocation and disposal. A review of the plant began three months ago before the sale of Superior Essex to LS Cable was agreed. Meanwhile LS Cable said its first half operating profit increased by over 50% with the Middle East and China leading global demand through the development of utilities and phone lines to meet power needs and internet usage. The chief executive of LS Cable, Christopher Koo, said orders from the Middle East are likely to increase by 80% this year to $450 million. Mr Koo said he expects global cable demand to increase by 4% a year to 2011, with China increasing by 8% annually.