Copper end use trends

A vote could come as early as this week in the U.S. Senate on a bill introduced by Senate Tax Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) containing a one-year renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) extension and a small wind turbine investment tax credit. The Senate bill, S. 3335, contains a one-year PTC extension at its current value. After December 31, 2009, any further extension would include the "presumption" of a cost cap, which would, through a complex formula, put a ceiling on the value of the credits of no greater than 35% of project value. The small wind ITC has a cap of US $4,000 per system.The 10-year cost for the PTC, including all technologies to which it applies, is projected to be approximately US $7 billion, while the ITC, which includes solar, would cost approximately US $907 million over 10 years. The bill also includes provisions to extend through 2014 the tax credits for solar energy, fuel cell and microturbine property, as well as the residential energy efficient property tax credit. Marine renewable energies could also benefit from the bill as credits to build wave, tidal, current and ocean thermal energy conversion systems of at least 150 kilowatts (kW) are extended through the end of 2011.

Hydrogen fuel-cell cars have received a great deal of attention over the years as a clean alternative to petroleum-based transportation, producing only water for exhaust. Certainly the technology is known. Demonstration vehicles have been produced by several manufacturers and Honda is starting to roll out a fleet of 200 FCX Clarity fuel-cell cars, available for lease to select customers for US $600 per month. These autos are costing Honda hundreds of thousands of dollars each though, according to Honda's president Takeo Fukui (Wall Street Journal, June 16 2008), and it will take another decade before their cost falls below US $100,000. Although fuel-cell cars remain a long way from providing commercially viable transportation for the vast majority of people, cars are not the only application for fuel cells. Fuel cells are reaching commercial viability sooner in other applications such as portable electronics, including laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and games, aiming to supplement the ability of batteries to power these mobile devices for extended periods of time. There are a number of reasons why fuel cells may prove more competitive in portable electronics than in cars, including the favorable cost, lifetime requirement and easier distribution in this market. One of the companies developing fuel-cell technology for portable electronics is Polyfuel, using its proprietary hydrocarbon membrane technology for direct methanol fuel cells. The cost of power for portable electronics, according to Polyfuel president and CEO Jim Balcom, is up to US $10,000 per watt, compared with US $20-50 for autos, making portable electronics a much more attractive market than cars initially.

The Indonesian government and state electricity company are demanding industries spread out their electricity demand by moving away from traditional work-weeks.

This is good news for the solar industry, where cost has been a barrier to wider acceptance.

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Mining group Xstrata posted a 1.1 percent fall in first-half mined copper output and a 6.1 percent fall in mined nickel production on Wednesday.

An SCR-type casting and rolling facility for the production of copper wire rod is to be introduced at Nippon Mining & Metals' Chinese JV. Due to start in August and complete in 2010, the facility will expand output capacity by 50% to 300,000 tonnes per year with ¥3 billion capital expenditure. The JV, Chang Zhou Jin Yuan, will cease its current Contirod-type facility when the SCR-facility comes on line. Nippon decided to undertake the capacity expansion to meet strong demand from infrastructure construction in China.

Chilean mining companies top the list of Latin America's 500 most profitable companies, according to the magazine América Economía.

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) Tuesday said it expects copper treatment and refining charges to continue falling.

Air batteries, which create electricity from a reaction between oxygen in the air and a zinc negative electrode, can store five times as much electricity as a similarly sized li-ion battery, although there are problems before they can be commercialised

TORONTO, July 28 (Reuters) - Copper Mountain Mining Corp (CUM.V: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to spend C$402 million ($394 million) to revive a copper mine in British Columbia that it expects will produce nearly 100 million pounds of the metal per year, the company said on Monday. The company said production at its Copper Mountain open pit mine should begin at the end of 2010 with a 35,000 tonne-per-day mill. The project would have an an initial mine life of 15 years, according to a feasibility study. The news drove the junior miner's shares up by nearly 6 percent. The construction decision has not formally been approved by the company's board of directors, but the company has already ordered equipment, said Don Graham, director of Copper Mountain's investor relations.

These are heady times for the thin-film solar industry. The sector's dominant player, First Solar, has been on a tear of late, recently announcing it would build a second 10 megawatt power plant in Nevada, while Miasole, once thought to be ailing, has staged an impressive comeback, raking in an eye-popping $220 million. Nanosolar has developed a new ultra-fast solar cell printer, and even giants like IBM and Applied Materials have gotten in on the game. In the face of such intense competition, how will HelioVolt, a well-funded outpost of CIGS manufacturing in Texas, fare? The company hopes a new hybrid, super fast CIGS process it has developed in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which combines its patented FASST process and NREL's non-vacuum deposition technique, will help even the odds. The Austin, Texas-based company licensed NREL's non-vacuum deposition process, which allows for the quick application of liquid precursors onto a printing plate and substrate, to manufacture its solar cells with a 12.2 percent conversion efficiency at a fraction of the regular cost and in record time - under 6 minutes. Another advantage is that the substrate can be made from a variety of building materials, including glass, metals, plastics and roofing materials.

\nCadiz, Spain - While significant challenges remain and large-scale applications appear relatively far out on the horizon, smaller scale applications, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), are already being built into a variety of electronic products. Industry pioneers, such as G24i, have begun manufacturing their first generation of products, which in G24i's case includes a DSC-powered mobile phone charger and an award-winning "Lighting Africa" portable lamp that marries cutting-edge LED and dye-sensitized thin-film PV technologies. \n\nLooking to bring off-grid electrical power options to people in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and a still growing range of African countries, G24i in May was awarded the World Bank Group's 2008 "Lighting Africa Development Marketplace" prize for its solar-powered LED light, which uses the company's proprietary dye-sensitized thin-film solar cells in concert with light emitting diodes (LED) produced by Dutch lighting manufacturer Lemnis. \n\nG24i dye-sensitized thin-film solar cells are proving themselves rugged enough to endure some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Besides enduring the rigors of operating in various African locations, the company's DSC cells were used to generate electrical power for British explorer Robert Swan and his team during their two-week 'E-Base Goes Live' project in which they traveled to Antarctica. Despite poor sunlight, the cells contributed to the successful powering of satellite, digital and video conferencing and other communications equipment throughout the two-week long expedition.\n\nThe first person to walk to the North and South Poles, Swan is moving on to an educational sailing around the world project and G24i is working on sails for his craft that will have thin-film dye-sensitized PV cells embedded in them. \n

Mexican copper miner Grupo Mexico posted second-quarter net profit of $452m Monday, down 14% versus the same period a year ago, with copper output down from a long-running strike. The company reported sales of $1.758bn, down from $2.089bn last year, as well as a 22% drop in EBITDA to $960m. A strike at the company's largest copper pit, the giant Cananea mine, has dragged on for a full year, cutting into production of the red metal, the company's primary product.

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.

Luvata Oy, Espoo, Finland, formerly Outokumpu Copper Products Oy, has stated that its $40 million copper tube mill in Guadalupe, Mexico will begin production on schedule this September. 50% of the total plant capacity will be reached with one line during September with the second line coming on line by the end of quarter four. Once full production is reached, the plant is expected to add 50,000 tons a year to Luvata's copper tube capacity in N.America. Luvata is moving ahead with its plans for this facility despite a slowdown in the North American HVAC market. The company remains cautiously optimistic about the future, stating, "based on feedback from clients, the U.S. housing market will begin to turn around by the second half of 2009 or in 2010." Strong demand in China, where Luvata has also built plants, as well as from other developing countries has helped maintain Luvata's positive outlook for the viability of the plant. The plant will face stiff competition. Henan Golden Dragon is also building a US$80M copper commercial tube mill in Coahuila, Mexico, and Mexico's IUSA has also announced plans to increase commercial tube production. In the USA, Kobe Wieland Copper Products LLC is also undertaking a US$71M upgrade of its North Carolina copper commercial tube mill.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association announced on July 25th that Japanese rolled copper output fell 1% to 504,455 tonnes in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2007. This is the second year in a row that has seen a decline in output. With building activity slow, buyers minimized purchase to avoid price change risk with the fluctuation of copper ingot, leading to the output fall. Copper strip and brass strip saw a 3.4% increase to 137,005 tonnes and 6.5% rise to 67,900 tonnes respectively over the same period due to higher demand from the automobile sector. Brass bar and copper tube output both fell in H1 on prior year. The slow building market saw brass bar output decrease 4.6% to 113,532 tonnes while an increase in offshore production from Japanese air conditioning manufacturers led to an 8.2% decrease in copper tube output to 82,843 tonnes.

Monday, 28 July 2008 \nGuangdong Chigo Air Conditioner, a large-sized modern enterprise integrating the development, production and sales of household and commercial air conditioners, recently announced its agent in Egypt successfully won the contract for the Huawei correspondence station in Egypt after seven hardworking months.\n\n Huawei is said to have already achieved 12.56 billion dollars sales revenue, becoming one of the top five global telecommunications equipment producer, now with primacy globally, especially in Africa. Contracts for the correspondence station of Huawei in Egypt were mainly in the hands of Carrier for a long time, which means other brands could not compete with it and usually did not pass the test phase. Because the equipment for each station was valued at over 300 thousand yuan, the AC units could not run for a long time without a reliable capability guarantee. Right now the first set of Chigo splits is already installed in the station.\n\nThe vice president of Chigo Overseas Marketing Department , Mr. Peter Liao, said :"The success of this project means a lot for us. The intergrated ability of Chigo is already at new stage, being the supplier of a globally famous communication company. The cooperation with Huawei is meaningful for Chigo's development in the North African and African markets." For the success of the Huawei project, Huawei's subsidiaries in Libya and Sudan have also started to cooperate with Chigo, reveals the company's press release. \n\n\n

LIMA, Peru -- Peru's Southern Copper Corp. on Thursday said second-quarter \nprofit fell 24 percent from the year-ago period amid strikes and higher fuel and \nproduction costs.

Olin Brass, a division of Global Brass & Copper LLC since Global's $400 million purchase of Olin Corp. in November, is looking to increase product prices in response to rapidly increasing costs and softening demand from end-user markets. The price rises are one aspect of a wider re-organisation by Global in an attempt to offset rising raw material and energy costs. According to the company these initiatives have led to productivity gains of over 10 percent, freeing up significant working capital. However Global comments, "our input costs keep going up at such a rate we simply can't be profitable despite cost savings that we've put in place. We need to receive more for our product." Olin is also being hit by depressed end-user markets. As the slowdown in residential construction activities following the sub-prime mortgage crisis continues, demand in the fabrication sector remains low. The US Department of Commerce reported a 3.3% drop in housing starts in May, with building permits for future construction declining to an annual rate of 969,000. Despite the somewhat bleak outlook the falling dollar against a basket of foreign currencies has lead some copper and brass business that was moved offshore to return to the U.S. lately. "It's not a torrent of products coming back, but whereas in 2001 through 2003 we saw an exodus of business from here to China, this has slowed if not balanced out with some things coming back" according to Olin Brass. Olin brass is a manufacturer and distributor of copper and copper-alloy sheet, strip, plate, foil, and fabricated components in headquartered in Illinois, USA.

Denmark may have registered two consecutive quarters of falling economic output \n- technically putting the country in recession - but there is no shortage of \njobs.