Copper end use trends

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.

Wind power is the most mature of mainstream renewable energy technologies and, if the world's electricity generation is to be made cleaner, it must play a large part.\n\nThe International Energy Agency estimates that, if global greenhouse gas emissions are to be halved by 2050, as scientists say is necessary, then wind must represent about 17 per cent of worldwide power generation by that date.

Brazilian Government introduces new taxes for inefficient lamps.

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.

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".

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.

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.

Credit-crunched Londoners grabbed pocketfuls of pennies today at the launch of a 20-foot billboard advert made entirely from one-pence coins. The unique installation - made using over 20,000 pennies - only lasted 30 minutes as hundreds of opportunistic passers-by seized their moment to pick up a penny or two

Yet another use for copper

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.

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.

It looks like Volkswagen is having quite a month, first entering into a plug-in hybrid partnership with the German government and now announcing plans to produce a diesel hybrid concept good for 235 MPG!

8Mb rADSL is a far off pipe-dream - only speed advantage over a modem is the connect time. But it's what I'm charged for.

Another factor in the local network copper/aluminium/fibre mix. Consumers are paying for high speed and getting something in between. This isn't underpinning demand its causing consumers frustration.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.

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.