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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.

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.

Chinalco Kunming, a Yunnan-based producer of low-oxygen copper wirerod, announced that it will increase its output of copper wirerod to 150,000t in 2013, up from 40,000t in 2012. The company started trial production in 2012 and operated below capacity for most of the year, with output of 5,000t in November and 4,000t in December. The company said its facilities have an production capacity of 220,000t at full capacity.

A recent survey by the Shanghai Metals Market of 21 major Chinese copper wirerod producers, with a total capacity of 3.4Mt/y, showed that operating rates in February fell to 57.8% as facilities slowed production during the Chinese New Year holiday. Wirerod producers reduced output as downstream demand from cable makers was weak in February, according to an SMM report with the survey. Many migrant workers return to their homes during the period, forcing factories to shut or reduce working hours. The SMM survey also revealed that producer's inventories of raw materials for the production of wirerod had increased to 22.6% of production in February, up 7.3 percentage points from January.

According to data from the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association(CBSA), total shipments from US brass and copper mills slipped 1.1% y-o-y in 2012, to 261.5Mlb (118,600t). Data from November had indicated that year-to-date shipments were roughly unchanged from 2011, however, a 16.9% m-o-m drop in shipments in December tipped total shipments into contraction territory for the year. In general, copper semis shipments were stronger than alloy shipments, with copper rod shipments up 8.3% in 2012, to 64.4Mlb (29,200t). Total alloy shipments fell 5.4% in 2012, to 139.6Mlb (63,300t), with 300-series alloy RBS shipments declining by the largest amount in the year, falling 11.9% to 61.3Mlb (27,800t).

According to Aurubis Buffalo's vice president of marketing and sales, demand for brass mill products in the US has been strong so far in 2013. The company has seen a strong pickup in demand from sectors including ammunition, electronics, heating and HVAC so far this year. The executive said that lead times at service centers were longer than eight weeks in January for flat-rolled products and that the company is considering hiring more workers at its Buffalo operation to meet the demand.

The demand for copper flat-rolled products softened coming into March after a strong start to the year, according to sources at some US service centers. Lead times for some copper products, which were quoted as long as eight weeks back in January, may have shorted to six weeks or less in March according to an American Metal Market report. A drop in demand for appliances and connectors market was noted by some sources contacted by AMM, but sales of ammunition, a key end-use of flat-rolled brass, have remained buoyant since the start of the year.

Yangzhou Baosheng Copper Industry, a large Chinese manufacturer of wire and cable, announced on 12th December that it had placed an order with Germany's SMS Meer for a CONTIROD system to be installed at its plant in Baoying, Jiangsu province. The new system, which has a capacity of 48t/h, will come into action in 2014 and will enable the company to expand its range of products.

According to an annual survey from Antaike, operating rates at Chinese copper fabricators were on average 2.66 percentage points lower in 2012 than in 2011. The sector that saw the largest slow down in utilisation was the copper tube sector, down 7.27 percentage points in 2012, due to low operating rates in air conditioner sector denting the demand for copper tube in China. Wire manufacturers and foil manufacturers were reported to have fared better in 2012, with utilisation rates rising modestly.

Henan-based Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube (Henan Golden Dragon), the world's largest manufacturer of commercial copper tube, will open a new 30,000t/y high precision copper tube factory in July 2013. Henan Golden Dragon begun production of the facility in May 2012 and have invested a total of RMB 380M (USD60.5M). The factory will produce high precision copper tube.

Superior Essex Energy Inc., the US based energy cablemaking division of Superior Essex Inc., began commercial production of its new suite of low voltage energy cables. The new products include 300V and 600V instrumentation cables and 600V control cables for industrial, utility power or station control circuits. The company is manufacturing its new offering out of its Tarboro, NC facility which represents Superior Essex Inc.'s first North American production facility for low voltage energy cables. Superior Essex Energy Inc. has plans to expand its portfolio to supply the Commercial, Industrial and Energy markets.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association anticipates that the production of rolled copper products will reach 825,300t in the 2012/2013 financial year, up 2.4% y-o-y. The organisation attributes this projected increase to brighter economic prospects, a prospering automotive sector and increased government reconstruction investment.This year, output declined 6.6% y-o-y. In February alone, production reached 64,076t, up 0.9% m-o-m, but down 8.5% y-o-y.

Chinese motor vehicle production increased to 1.6M units in February, up 23.8% on January levels and 28.5% y-o-y. The production levels of passenger vehicles showed the most impressive y-o-y growth at 31.3%. Nonetheless, combined automobile production in the first two months of this year was down 4.9% y-o-y. The automotive industry is a major end use sector for copper demand, with passenger vehicles utilising around 20kg per car.

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 .

Amer International Group, a Chinese copper products fabricator, announced that it is building a 500,000t/y copper wire and rod plant in Zhangmutou Town, Dongguan City, Gunagdong Province. The facility will have additional capacity to produce 100,000t/y of copper alloy products. The company expects to bring the operation on stream by 2015 and the combined investment cost amounts to RMB11.2B (US$1.8B). Amer currently has an attributable wirerod production capacity of 250,000t/y through its subsidiary's plant situated in the Tongling Economic and Technological Development Zone. The company is targeting a wirerod production capacity of 1.5Mt/y via two further projects.

Ducab-HV, a joint venture between the Dubai and Abu Dhabi governments, has opened a new factory in Jabel Ali, Dubai for the production of single core copper/aluminium conductor power cables with a voltage range of 66kV to 400kV. The plant will increase Ducab's production capacity by 15,000 tonnes of conductor per annum. The company estimates that production will meet the full infrastructural development demands of the UAE. In addition, production is expected to be sufficient to allocate 75% of total output for supplying the GCC, European and African export markets.

Revere Copper Products Inc., which is based in Rome, N.Y., will increase its fabrication charge on all copper and copper alloy products by an average of 10%, effective as of 1st March. Revere said that the rise in costs related to supply, energy and health-care were attributable for the price hike. It also added that the new revenue will ensure that the company can reinvest in key process centers to improve its quality, service and reliability.

Japan Metal Daily has reported that Furukawa Electric has introduced a 500t/y copper wirerod production line at its subsidiary, Shenyang Furukawa Cable in China. The wirerod is used to produce conductors, which were previously purchased from outside the company. The development of the production line is part of Furukawa's move to shift more production in-house.

TEPCO, a Japanese power supplier announced that it will increase its electricity prices for corporate clients by an average of 17% to cover higher energy costs for the use of thermal power plants while the firm idles many of its nuclear power facilities. The Japan Copper and Brass Association diapproves of the move, which it says would add ¥1.2 - 1.3B/y in production costs at the affected brass mills. The 23 copper product fabrication sites within the TEPCO supply area account for 43% of total copper semis output in Japan.

Encore Wire Corporation, a leading copper cable-maker for the building sector, has submitted plans to build a 202,000-square-foot facility in McKinney, TX to house aluminium wire production lines. The plans include the employment of 100 staff and the value of the project, which is reported to be $25M. Of Encore Wire's total cable production, it is estimated that 5% of sales revenue are from cable containing aluminium conductor.

The China Non-ferrous Metals Fabrication Industrial Association (CNFA) announced that it is considering legislative changes that could see more stringent standards for introducing new copper processing facilities in China. The association warned that there could be a copper products surplus in 2015 following the start-up of new projects, adding that processing capacity should not exceed production by more than 15%. CNFA figures indicate that China produced 10.28Mt of copper products in 2011, up by 18% y-o-y. Processing capacity and utilisation rates were estimated at 12Mt/y and 90% at the end of 2011.