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A pilot programme launched by the International Copper Association (ICA) and Copper miner Codelco has tested the use of Copper cages in salmon farming. According to a joint statement of the two organisations, it was the first time that about 60,000 salmon were harvested in Copper cages. The programme was part of a wider plan of the two organisations which looks for new markets for Copper. Codelco said that the use of Copper benefits salmon farming because of its antimicrobial properties. The programme showed that there was a decrease in salmon mortality and better oxygenation in specimens.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Copper futures jumped Wednesday after news that a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Chile, the world's top Copper producer. Copper futures for December delivery rose 3.6 cents, or 1.2%, to $3.12 a pound. Copper fell in morning trading. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake hit 63 miles east of Iquique, Chile, a major Copper mining area.

Chinese imports of copper and copper products in February increased by 42% m-o-m to 329,311 tonnes. Bloomberg reported that this is the highest increase in inbound shipments since 2003. LME copper prices have jumped by 19% since the beginning of the year, reaching US$3,667 per tonne on March 10th. copper prices have been supported by optimism regarding the Chinese and the US government spending packages. Infrastructure projects will boost the demand for copper semis, especially cables and tubes.

""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."

"The retirement of experienced copper industry executives and the lack of trained technical replacements is helping to drive substitution and is likely to lead to more mergers and acquisitions as the industry adapts, senior industry executives said. A group of panelists at Metal Bulletin-American Metal Market's copper seminar in New York this week said that the copper sector needed to be far more proactive in attracting new talent and ensuring the gap in the professional supply chain is filled. "One thing that is driving substitution is the retirement of engineers that were very tied into the thought that copper wiring was the only alternative and that aluminium was unsafe," said Stu Thorn, CEO of Southwire. Thorn said the idea that aluminium was unsafe "almost became a psychological obsession" despite the development of new technologies to make it safe. "Now that generation of engineers is retiring, the new generation coming up doesn't necessarily have that same level of bias [towards copper], but what they do have is the drive to make more money, to reduce costs, and find cheaper alternatives," he told the seminar. "There is a shift..."

H1 reports from China's metal companies have revealed difficult operating conditions as rising energy prices, investment in environmental protection and an increase in resource tax have squeezed margins. Shares in the metal index fell 58.6% in the first half of the year, underperforming the SSE Composite Index which saw a 48% decrease. Copper companies fared better than most as the Copper price remained at historically high levels and prices of sulphuric acid - a byproduct of the Copper treatment process - soared. Jiangxi Copper, China's biggest producer, reported strong results with a 55% surge in revenues year-on-year. Net profit grew at the slower rate of 32.8%, reducing the company's profit margin to 10.4%, from 12.1% in the first half of 2007. The company has a slightly bearish outlook for the rest of this year, as the continued slowdown in the global economy takes its toll on Copper demand and the appreciation of the dollar puts downward pressure on Copper prices. However, it suspects Copper supply will remain tight, which should support prices on the downside. Yunnan Copper Company struggled in the first half as revenue fell 18.9% and net profit plunged 29.5% y-o-y. The companies profit margin was cut to 3.8%, from 4.4% in the first half of 2007. A 45-day machine overhaul was blamed for the poor sales figures as output remained flat, whilst high energy prices pushed up production costs. Tongling Nonferrous Metals saw similar problems to Yunnan as rising raw material prices and fluctuations in the Copper price cut the gross margin in the firm's Copper unit to just 0.59%. Company-wide results were improved greatly by the strong performance of sulphuric acid, where gross margin increased to 71.6%, bringing Tongling's profit margin to 2.9%, up from 2.0% in H1 2007.

The Japan Copper & Brass Association reported Japanese Copper rolled product import fell by 2.5% y-o-y to 50,057t in the fiscal year ending March 2008. While volume of import was still high, it has fallen y-o-y the first time since the fiscal year ending March 2002. Copper tube import decreased by 19% y-o-y to 10,661t, partly due to the slowdown of new housing starts after the Japanese imposed new building standard law. Biggest importers to Japan are reported to be South Korea, China, Germany, Taiwan and North America.

According to the Japan Copper and Brass Association, total production of Copper and Copper alloy semis fell by 4.1% y-o-y to 72,770t in July. Output also contracted by 0.5% m-o-m in July, a second consecutive monthly decline. The fall is attributed in large part to the struggling automotive sector, which has been strongly impacted by the 11th March disaster.

Production for domestic shipments contracted by 6.6% y-o-y to reach 51,112t, whilst output for export markets fell more rapidly in January, reaching 8,898t after a 23.1% y-o-y decline (this however, was narrower than the December drop in exports of 30.7% y-o-y). Copper strip still represented the most heavily produced brass mill semi-fabricated product (27.7% of overall production in gross weight) but output decreased by 11.3% y-o-y, amounting to 16,600t in January. This was principally attributed to weak interconnector demand, the impact of the flooding in Thailand and the highly appreciated yen affecting the export market. Copper tube output decreased by 14.5% y-o-y to 9,750t in January, on weak demand from air conditioner manufacturers caused by bad weather and a slow world economy. Brass bar production fell by 7.7% y-o-y but rose by 900t since December to reach 14,206t in January. The change was attributed to improving demand from the domestic automotive and plumbing sectors.

June 2008\nNA Copper Mail

Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) said it is expecting at least EUR40 million of synergies each year from the takeover of Cumerio which was completed in March this year. The company said that it will benefit from the transfer of best practice between the two companies while cost savings mainly come from logistics and process optimization. NA also plans to increase production at its Cumerio smelters. The company expects further acquisition opportunities in Europe and in other parts of the world, including Asia. NA plans to expand its operations in southeastern Europe and the Black Sea region to capitalize on its strong economic growth before looking for growth opportunities outside Europe. In Bulgaria, the company currently expands copper cathode production capacity of its Pirdop smelter to 180,000 tonnes per year.

Norddeutsche Affinerie is to invest €62.5M to increase by 60% its copper scrap recycling capacity in Lünen, Germany by 2011. The investment will double the firm's capacity to process complex copper-bearing scrap such as shreddings, powders and electrical scrap to 140,000t/y, bringing total scrap recycling capacity up to 350,000t/y from 220,000t/y currently. The scrap will be processed into copper cathode. The investment will see the installation of a second smelting furnace, and a waste gas purification plant in Lünen. Norddeutsche's current secondary smelter in Lünen uses a range of scrap, whilst its Hamburg plant uses copper concentrate and a small percentage of high-grade scrap. Electronic scrap availability has increased in Europe as end-of-life regulations have been introduced for its disposal.

According to data released by the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association, wire and cable sales in FY2008 plunged to 759,368 tonnes compared to 856,151 in FY2007. This represents a 11.3% y-o-y decline, reaching the lowest level since 1976. In addition, copper and copper alloy semis, including sheets and tubes, experienced a record y-o-y decrease in March, the lowest in more than 34 years. The Japan copper and Brass Association reported that production of copper and copper alloy semis in March shrunk by 60% y-o-y to 34,440 tonnes. For the year ended 31st March, output fell by 19% y-o-y to 806,927 tonnes, the lowest since 1982.

Xingye Copper International Group Ltd. raised its Copper plate and strip capacity to 80kt. Capacity expansion has been achieved by improving technology. The company is a major high precision Copper plate and strip producer in China with two plants in Cixi City, Zhejiang Province and Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province. For FY2008, Xingye Copper reported operating income of 1.758 billion yuan, down by 16.1% y-o-y, and shipments of 44,387 tonnes compared to 51,889 tonnes in 2007.

The Chinese Henan Province has announced that it plans to invest in key regional projects. According to the plans, nine projects are related to the non-ferrous metals industry, two of which are copper semis plants. The first is a high precision electronic copper sheet and coil project of Chalco Luoyang copper Co., Ltd. with annual capacity of 100,000 t. The second is a copper sheet and coil project of Henan Sanfeng copper Co., Ltd. with annual capacity of 50,000 t.

The State Administration of Taxation in China announced that it will increase its export tax rebates on copper foil, plate and tube from 1st April. The policy was announced on 27th March and it aims to boost Chinese exports. copper plate's export tax rebate will rise from 5% to 9%, copper foil's from 5% to 13%, and copper tube's from 9% to 13%. It is expected that the measure will support the copper semis market.

According to a statement made by JP Morgan Securities, copper demand in China may experience strong growth in Q4. This argument is based on the fact that the large amount of accumulated copper inventories in China will be processed. As a result, copper stockpiles will run down. The forecast projected an annual growth in Chinese copper demand of 7-8% for 2009, backed by robust demand in power infrastructure. Chinese copper imports in April reached 400,000t, an increase of 7% compared with March.

A number of copper semis projects were recently announced in China. Guangzhou JCC copper Semis, which is a subsidiary of Jiangxi copper, said that its 400ktpy copper wirerod project was started in Guangdong Zengcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone. It is expected that investment will amount to 2 billion yuan. Another copper wirerod project was initialised by Yingtan Jiangnan copper in Yingtan Economic and Technological Development Zone. Capacity will amount to 50ktpy of copper wirerod, using copper scrap as raw material. The cost of the project will total 150 million yuan and it is anticipated that it will realise 320 million yuan of operating income when it is commissioned. In addition, a 40ktpy copper semis project was commissioned by Jiangxi Tungsten Catalana S. L. copper Semis. Adopting European technology, products include high speed railway slip line.

Japanese output of copper and copper alloy fabricated products increased by 5.4% to 73,680 tonnes in November, slightly down from 74,079 tonnes in October, according to the Japan copper and Brass Association. This figure includes sheets and tubes, mainly used in automobiles and construction. Demand for copper products was supported by both local consumption and overseas shipments. This year's hot weather has boosted demand from the air-conditioner sector, where manufacturers have been building up inventories after robust sales in the summer.

Chinese Henan Longhui Copper Co. Ltd. has confirmed that its Copper and Copper alloy tube and Copper pipe project is underway and is expected to be completed by June 2011. The operation is expected to produce 90,000t/y of Copper and Copper alloy tube, including large-calibre Copper tube and corrosion-resisting Copper alloy tube, and 100,000t/y of Copper pipe. The project will be completed at a cost of RMB1B and is expected to generate RMB10B in sales revenue and RMB500M in pre-tax profit. The company, which is located in the Mengzhuang Industrial zone of Hui county in Henan province, produced 380,000t of Copper tube in 2010 and generated RMB23.5B in sales revenue.

According to the China Nonferrous Industry Association (CNIA), China's copper fabricating capacity will increase from 12Mt/y today to 16Mt/y in 2015. In 2010, China's fabricating capacity was 12Mt and output was 10Mt. By 2015, CNIA forecasts an additional copper fabricating capacity of 1.5Mt of copper wire, 1.2Mt of copper plate and 450,000t of copper tube.

"The giant Chilean Escondida mine produces more copper than anywhere on earth. Some 1.2m tonnes emerge from the BHP Billiton-run facility each year. For the largest miners, Escondida also serves as a key measure for world copper output. To meet global demand over the next decade, the industry "will have to add the equivalent of a new Escondida every 15 months", says Jean-Sebastien Jacques, head of copper at Rio Tinto, which owns a minority stake in the mine. First Quantum, a mid-tier copper miner, says that if China, India and Brazil were to reach EU levels of copper use by 2020, it would imply nine new Escondidas."