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"Asia Pacific: The Largest Market for Switchgear The Asia-Pacific region holds The largest market for switchgear, driven largely by The number of transmission and distribution line up gradations and developments in The South East Asia. These developments are due to its growing energy needs is The major growth engine for this market. Utilities: Biggest Market by Application Switchgear is mostly used in Transmission & Distribution by power utility companies. They are used for switching The equipment or The circuit during The event of fault. With The growing transmission and distribution network across globe, The number of substations will keep on increasing. This increasing number of substations is expected to increase The use and demand for switchgears. Maximum T&D expansion projects are ongoing in Asia-Pacific and The market is expected to be The biggest and The fastest growing market for switchgear. The Switchgear industry is fragmented and offers several opportunities for consolidation and growth in efficiency through an increase in economies of scale. The industry has low entry and exit barriers. This is a major driver of The Switchgear Market. Top players of The PR market are ABB (Switzerland), Eaton Corporation (Ireland), GE (U.S.), and Siemens AG (Germany)."

General Motors Corp., along with a consortium of more than 30 utilities and a non-profit electric industry research group, has struck a deal to forestall potential problems when the company introduces its new electric vehicle to the nation's showrooms. An EPRI official also emphasized the grid aspects of the collaboration. Said Arshad Mansoor, the organization's vice president of power delivery: "Seemless integration of [plug-in hybrid electric vehicles] into the electric grid will require close collaboration between the automobile and electric sectors." the statements from EPRI and the car company also address safe and convenient vehicle charging, public education and other public policies, including codes and standards. Among the utility participants in the collaboration are Consolidated Edison of New York, Duke Energy, First Energy Corp., Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. Others are listed as part of the EPRI statement. the research organization last year released a report along with the Natural Resources Defense Council that concluded plug-in hybrids had the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions. GM, meanwhile, emphasized the cost benefit of the new vehicles, saying consumers could find that the per-mile expense of an electric vehicle would be about one-fifth that of a gas-powered car.

"In my personal opinion, most plants are unlikely to actually cut back because of profit factors. The smelters agreed to cut back mainly because of tight power and high power costs, but for some, supply is not much affected, only costs have gone up. But The cost of shutting down and restarting might be even higher than The increased power prices," a source from Shaanxi Tongchuan aluminum said July 11. A source from Chuangyuan aluminum said, "We also signed The agreement, but that's just a piece of paper; There is no definite ruling to say we must cut output. We have no plans to cut output at The moment or in The short term, but we may consider cutting back in The future." The Chuangyuan source also cited The power versus shutdown cost ratioand noted that in any case The company has its own power plant. "We don't expect many of The oTher smelters at The meeting to cut eiTher, including Chalco ... everyone will wait and see," he said. "Domestic prices have risen slightly, but mainly affected by The rise on The LME yesterday - There seems to be little fundamental impact within China itself," an analyst from Beijing Antaike said July 11. "People are all very uncertain and maybe confused now since There are no definite details on what The cutbacks will be." A Chinese trader said domestic demand and trade activity were also expected to slow due to The Olympics, and those plants that actually shut may be able to restart in The fourth quarter, so The impact on domestic prices would be minimal.

The Ridgeway underground mine cave is located in The mineral-rich Cadia Valley province in central New South Wales. A gold and copper mine, it is 100% owned by Australia's Newcrest Mining, and is one of three operations owned by The company in The province. The oThers are Cadia East and Cadia Hill, The largest of The three. "The Ridgeway underground mine cave is located in The mineral-rich Cadia Valley province."Ridgeway is in The process of transitioning from The sub-level cave to a block cave beneath The existing mine. In 2007 The Newcrest board approved development of The Ridgeway Deeps block cave. It will be The first natural caving operation to be developed by Newcrest and will be The deepest block cave in Australia. The company says it is spending A$525m to develop it. The mineral resource at Ridgeway Deeps was re-estimated following a geological reinterpretation which yielded an increased resource of 20 million tons containing 0.5 million ounces of gold, and 0.05 million tons of copper. GEOLOGY AND RESERVES

Instead, America's consumption binge drew support from two major asset bubbles-property and credit. Courtesy of cheap and freely available credit, in conjunction with record housing price appreciation, consumers tripled the rate of net equity extraction from their homes, from 3 percent of disposable personal income in 2001 to 9 percent in 2006. Only by levering increasingly overvalued homes could Americans go on the biggest consumption binge in modern history. And now those twin bubbles-property and credit-have burst, and so has the US consumption bubble: real consumer spending fell at an unprecedented 3.5 percent average annual rate in the two final quarters of 2008. While the original excesses were made in America, the rest of the world was delighted to go along for the ride. With the United States lacking in internal saving, it had to import surplus savings from abroad in order to grow-and ran massive current-account and trade deficits to attract that capital. This fit perfectly with the macro-imbalances of the export-led developing countries of Asia, whose exports exceeded a record 45 percent of regional GDP in 2007-fully ten percentage points higher than their share ten years earlier, in the depths of the Asian financial crisis. China led the charge, taking its exports from 20 percent, to 40 percent of its GDP over the past seven years alone. the export-led growth in developing Asia could well be described as a second-order bubble-in effect, a derivative of the one in US consumption.

"How can we measure ROI? The more general The market research objective, The more difficult it is to achieve a ROI measurement. In possibly half The market research projects that are commissioned, it is likely to be difficult, if not impossible, to measure The ROI. For These projects though, a more subjective approach would be useful to justify The market research expenditure. For example, to The question 'what is The risk to The business of taking a decision without market intelligence?' The importance of The business decision can be ranked from 1-5, where 1 is low and 5 is high. If The answer to it is a score of 4 or 5, Then market research could be justified. Where is The measurement most feasible? It is clear that The measurement of market research ROI is a valid concept, even though There are inherent difficulties in doing so. It is worth holding a post mortem after every research study is completed to judge The success of The project and wheTher it was financially justified. In oTher words, a straightforward satisfaction score on The research project may, in itself, be as good a measure as any."

"In the first of a series of exclusive articles, James Gordon explores the latest developments in V2G systems and asks if the technology has the power to reshape global electricity distribution networks.…. It is the world's largest consumer of energy(1), and with over half of China's 1.3 billion population choosing to live in its sprawling and gridlocked super-cities, the demand for power has never been greater. But ensuring that the 680 million who live in China's megalopolises receive a steady stream of electricity is no easy task. However, while the solution - to install a network of long distance super-grids - has proved to be effective, it has come at great cost. This highly innovative smart grid infrastructure that the State Grid Corporation of China, has been specially designed to transmit ultra-high-voltage-direct-current (UHVDC) at over 600,000 volts to China's main population centres from rural areas rich in energy(2). America, India, Germany and Brazil are also incorporating UHDVC lines into their grids, but Britain, whose population is expected to grow from 64,875,165 (2015) to 77,568,588 by 2050(3), is only in the early stages of exploring the potential of the technology according to the Energy Networks Association. And while the UK's Utility giants may yet decide to invest billions of pounds in these high-tech super grids, a fully functioning next-generation Battery Electric Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging system, located in Birmingham, the UK's second city, may mean they never need to. But how could this potentially game-changing technology, which has been installed at Aston University's European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI), one day save the National Grid and the tax-payer billions of pounds?"

Rohm and Haas Company has reported second quarter 2008 sales of $2,567 million, a 17% increase over the same period in 2007, with Electronic Materials and the chemical businesses outside North America delivering strong growth. the Electronic Materials Group comprises two reportable segments which provide materials for use in applications such as telecommunications, consumer electronics and household appliances. Sales for the Electronic Materials Group were $536 million in the second quarter of 2008, up 34% over the same period in 2007, reflecting the impact of acquisitions in Display Technologies as well as solid organic growth of Electronic Technologies. the Electronic Technologies segment is comprised of the company's Semiconductor Technologies, Circuit Board Technologies and Packaging and Finishing Technologies business units. Sales for the segment of $460 million were up 16% versus the second quarter of 2007, driven by strong growth in Asia for all business units. Sales in the second quarter excluding precious metals pass-through sales were up 15%. Semiconductor Technologies sales grew 13%, reflecting strong demand and favorable currencies, particularly in the Asia Pacific Region. Circuit Board Technologies sales increased 20% as compared to the same period last year, with solid growth in the Asia Pacific Region more than offsetting declines in North America. Packaging and Finishing Technologies sales rose 20% versus last year, primarily driven by strong growth in precious metal sales and in process sales. Adjusted pre-tax earnings for this segment of $107 million were up 11% from the second quarter of 2007, reflecting increased demand and favorable currencies, partially offset by higher metal costs and increased costs related to expansion efforts, including the new Asia Technical Center in Taiwan.\n\n\n

Growth in Asia is illustrated from this reporting at multiple levels of business - Opportunities are available for copper in a multitude of applications.

Suspected Communist rebels attacked Xstrata Plc's $3 billion Tampakan mine in the Philippines, which may be Southeast Asia's largest untapped copper deposit, according to the military and project partner Indophil Resources NL. the group burned a drill rig and police are investigating, the Melbourne-based company said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. No one was injured in the assault, which took place around midnight on July 20, according to the statement, which did not identify the attackers. the rebels, probably from the New People's Army, ``tried to extort money from the owners of the mine, but they declined to pay the so-called revolutionary tax,'' Armand Rico, a military spokesman, said today by phone from Davao City. Insurgent attacks may undermine the Philippines' drive to develop the nation's mining industry to exploit gold, copper and nickel. Indophil, which also reported an attack on Jan. 1, is the subject of takeover bids from Xstrata Plc, which owns 62.5 percent of the mine, and a rival management group.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc (K&S) has announced that the company has entered into definitive agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Orthodyne Electronics Corporation, a supplier of wedge bonders, and sell the K&S wire business unit to WC Heraeus GmbH, a precious metals and technology group. Under the terms of the Orthodyne agreement, K&S will fund the acquisition of Orthodyne with approximately 7.1 million shares of K&S common stock, plus $80 million in cash. If the transaction is not consummated by October 31, 2008, the purchase price will be approximately 19.6 million shares of K&S common stock and no cash. the deal includes possible earn-out consideration up to an additional $40 million in cash if certain financial objectives are met by Orthodyne over the next three years. the closing of the transaction, which is expected within approximately 60 days, is subject to certain working capital adjustments and closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. "the acquisition of Orthodyne is in line with our stated strategy and positions K&S to capitalize on our strengths in equipment manufacturing and further cement our position as the leading supplier of interconnect solutions," commented Scott Kulicke, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of K&S. "Orthodyne is a fast growing, profitable market leader and provides us with deeper penetration into the discrete side of the semiconductor market, particularly in the attractive power management and hybrid module markets."

As the economy attempts to take off from the current position, the power sector holds the key to support rapid economic growth in the currently power starved country. This is likely to create significant investment opportunities in the power sector. Currently, there exists a major power crisis in the country. the scope to bridge the impending power demand-supply gap offers huge investment opportunities for both the multinational and domestic companies across the power industry value chain from generation to transmission and distribution and in distributed power generation including power rental sector

Investors piled out of Russian stocks Friday after the abrupt departure from the country of a foreign oil boss and the prime minister's unexpected severe criticism of a large steel firm. MICEX, the exchange where the bulk of trading in Russian stocks takes place, plunged by 4.8 percent as of 12:20 p.m. Russian time, while the RTS, a top stock index, lost 4.4 percent to drop beneath the critical 2000-point barrier for the first time since March. After Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's scathing attack on Mechel late Thursday, heavy trading in New York sent the steel and coal maker's stock down by nearly 40 percent, losses mirrored Friday morning in Russian trading. the premier criticized the company, which is the largest supplier of coal for steelmakers in Russia, for charging much higher prices for raw materials domestically than it does for its exports, and called for an antitrust investigation into its activities.

Companies would spend more than $6-billion on submarine and terrestrial fibre optic cable infrastructure projects in Africa over the next two years, as countries scramble to boost international connectivity, market analysis firm BMI-TechKnowledge (BMI-T) said on Wednesday. In its latest research report, entitled 'Outlook for submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cable developments in Africa', BMI-T said that the effective high-speed internet services required for critical business, government and consumer applications have remained either unavailable or very expensive in Africa. Governments' awareness of this situation, and the perceived commercial attractiveness of the opportunity to close this gap, has given rise to the current frenetic activity for construction of submarine fibre cables on the continent. Investment in Africa's ICT infrastructure has improved significantly over the past decade. However, marked deficiencies persist in the backbone networks across the continent. "Although countries on the African west and southern coasts have access to fibre connectivity through the SAT-3 undersea cable, an estimated 80% of Africa's international voice and data traffic is carried via satellite," said Chanakira.

"What are the most important key performance indicators? there are, for example, indicators defining the temperature changes in reference rooms. This includes what is referred to as hours of overheating in summer. If the room temperature exceeds 26 degrees Celsius during more than 10 percent of the hours of use during a year, the room comfort is no longer achieved. Other indicators measure air quality. For example, there are CO2 sensors or so-called VOC-sensors that detect certain scents emitted by the users themselves. If the data exceed certain values, the performance in terms of air quality is not considered as good. In addition, there are energy performance indicators, such as an indicator for the overall energy efficiency of a building. We simply measure the energy that is supplied to the building. We then compare the data to pre-calculated values. We can then evaluate whether the building achieves the desired energy performance. Another indicator is the so-called net energy consumption. This is the energy that users actually have to pay for. "

""We have developed several new solutions, which can provide clear weight and cost saving opportunities to manufacturers of such commercial vehicles as trucks, buses as well as agricultural, industrial and construction equipment", stated Dr Andreas Brand, member of Leoni AG's Management Board with responsibility for the Wiring Systems Division. "We are confident that we will grow our business with the CV industry by more than five per cent per year until 2025." Alternative conductors save weight and cost In terms of weight optimisation, Leoni can reduce the harnesses' weight by replacing conventional wires. Alongside copper wires with smaller cross-sections, the Company provides the CV market with a range of wires made of aluminium for the power segment, i.e. with a cross-section between 10 mm2 and 110 mm2 and even larger. Although the aluminium conductors have a larger cross-section in order to deliver the same electrical conductivity, aluminium technology results in a noticeable weight reduction. On its booth, Leoni will show its busbar, a solid aluminium conductor, which can be bent in three dimensions and weighs only about half as much as the conventional copper component. Leoni will also show various conductor solutions based on copper. these can be used where mechanical strength as well as electrical conductivity is required. For example, a copper wire with a cross-section of 0.75 mm² could potentially be replaced by a smaller wire cross section, such as a 0.50 mm² or a 0.35 mm². Thanks to the use of less conductor material, Leoni's customers can not just reduce the weight of their vehicles, but also benefit in terms of cost savings."

Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claimed yesterday it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity. Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy, said it would require the capture of just 0.3% the scientists are calling for the creation of a series of huge solar farms - producing electricity either through photovoltaic cells, or by concentrating the sun's heat to boil water and drive turbines - as part of a plan to share Europe's renewable energy resources across the continent. A new supergrid, transmitting electricity along high voltage direct current cables would allow countries such as the UK and Denmark ultimately to export wind energy at times of surplus supply, as well as import from other green sources such as geothermal power in Iceland. Energy losses on DC lines are far lower than on the traditional AC ones, which make transmission of energy over long distances uneconomic. the grid proposal, which has won political support from both Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, answers the perennial criticism that renewable power will never be economic because the weather is not sufficiently predictable. Its supporters argue that even if the wind is not blowing hard enough in the North Sea, it will be blowing somewhere else in Europe, or the sun will be shining on a solar farm somewhere.

Mention copper to almost anyone in the PCB industry these days and the first thing that springs to mind is the ongoing price increase. Although copper pricing is not directly monitored by BPA, the impact on the price of laminate and PCBs is monitored through BPA's quarterly survey for its PCB Information Service. \n\nIn the short term, forecasted increases on the demand side for copper prices are likely to remain at least at the current level. the trend in copper usage has diverged in the fact that a number of different applications now exist. \n\nAt one time, 1 ounce (35µm) copper was standard, but the average is now 0.5 ounces. Using thinner copper, if the design will allow, can, to some extent, offset a price increase. However, one segment of the PCB industry which is particularly vulnerable to copper prices is the automotive sector, where recent developments have seen the introduction of thick copper PCBs for smart fuse boxes and power electronics. these boards use 4 ounce, 6 ounce and 10 ounce copper--up to 20 times the standard thickness.

The solar industry and semiconductor industry are intimately connected. Both industries rely on silicon and both use much of The same processing technology and supply chain to produce Their products. Nowhere has this connection been on better display than last week at The Moscone Center in San Francisco California, where The Intersolar North America made its debut in conjunction with SEMICON West 2008. The show provided an opportunity for those in The two industries to connect and allowed those companies that work in both spaces to showcase Their collective efforts. According to Chris O'Brien, Head of Market Development and Government Relations for North America for Oerlikon Solar, holding The two conferences togeTher gave companies greater exposure and showed The promise of The U.S. solar market. In recent months a number of traditional semiconductor companies including Intel and National Semiconductor have made announcements that They are making plans to enter The solar industry in one way or anoTher. Intel spun off it's solar research area into a new solar company called SpectraWatt. National Semiconductor announced that it will be introducing it's first solar product, SolarMagic, that could raise The efficiency of residential and industrial solar systems. Kevin Kayser, Senior Marketing Manager at National said that he product will be targeted at installers and integrators and much planning went into The company's decision to enter The solar space. "Photovoltaics currently has less than 1% of The energy market, but we think it has potentially one of The fastest growth rates of any alternative energy source. Now certainly we're looking at wind, we're looking geoThermal, we're looking at oTher sources, but from an electronics point of view we saw that we had The most immediate potential impact in solar photovoltaics," Kayser said.

Despite a slowdown in the global economy and a softening in demand for aluminium rolled products in some regions, JSE-listed aluminium reroller Hulamin expected global demand to increase this year. CEO Alan Fourie on Tuesday commented that the company, which exported about 70% of its products, had seen some softening in demand for aluminium rolled products in some regions, but added that demand for these products was expected to grow by between 5% and 7% this year. "Obviously the slowdown of the [global] economy puts pressure on margins, it is an economic consequence, but we are still selling into a growing international market," he said. Locally, however, the softening economic climate was expected to impact on sales volumes for the second half of the year. However, Hulamin expected these high-value products to continue growing as a percentage of its sales in the next few years. Fourie noted that five years ago, these products equated to just over 50% of its sales volumes, while their contribution was just below 60% in 2007. they now comprised about 64% of its total sales volumes. Meanwhile, Hulamin stated that its costs had increased by 16%, influenced by a 58% increase in energy costs, increasing alloying costs caused by magnesium prices rising from $2 000/t to $4 500/t, and increases in other metals. Excluding the cost of increasing energy and metals prices, the company's costs had increased by 6%. Fourie noted that while the rising aluminium costs did not affect its profitability, it did have an effect on its working capital. "We hold aluminium in our working capital. So when the aluminium price increases, the cash tied up in working capital increases and we have seen a significant increase in working capital during this period, because the rand price of aluminium has increased by close to 40% in the last six months," he explained. Further, Fourie did not expect the increasing electricity prices to have too great an impact on its futu

"We showed that copper ions diffuse out from a brass plate into a fish tank filled with seawater, and within 40 hours the copper killed 99.99% of the Vibrio food poisoning bacteria contaminating the living fish and shellfish," says Dr Jeong-Weon Huh from the Department of Health Research, at Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment, Republic of Korea. the copper is absorbed by the bacteria, causing them to die and fall off the gills and skin of the fish. Vibrio are even flushed from the internal organs of the fresh fish, sinking to the bottom of the tank. the remaining copper ions are absorbed from the seawater in the tank by sand and polyester filters, leaving safe, clean fish ready to be eaten by restaurant diners. "By being able to remove the copper ions, we can prevent people from consuming excess copper themselves, but let them safely enjoy any kind of fish, either raw or cooked," says Dr Jeong-Weon Huh.