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August 25th, 2009
- Market Stats
Tokyo Japan - Japanese copper cable shipments' decline slows in July
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Japanese copper wire and cable shipments fell 20.5 percent in July from a year earlier, but the pace of a decline slowed for a second straight month as demand improved in some sectors, industry data showed on Monday. July shipments were an estimated 58,200 tonnes, after falling 25.2 percent from a year earlier in June and 31.3 percent in May, the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association data showed. From the previous month, shipments rose 9 percent from 53,452 tonnes in June, the second month in a row of gains. Copper demand has been showing signs of improvement since shipments hit a 34-year low in May, helped by buying from the semiconductor and automobile sectors, raising hopes that the worst of the slump may be over. But the latest data also showed shipments to the construction sector, which accounts for about 40 percent of the total, fell 22.1 percent in July from a year earlier. That was faster than a 18.5 percent year-on-year decline in June, reflecting a prolonged slump in corporate spending and housing starts.
"Without a change in the trend of the construction sector, we cannot say that overall demand has hit a bottom and recovered," said an association official.
Industry observers will be watching the data for August, typically a slow month with many firms taking summer vacations, to gauge the strength of the nascent month-on-month recovery.
The month-on-month recovery in total shipments in June and July may only be temporary, the official added. "The August data will likely be down again (month-on-month) as there are fewer working days like in May," when Japan has its long Golden Week holiday.
Demand for copper has been hit hard by the worst global downturn in decades due to its wide industrial applications in goods such as computer chips to its use in power stations.
The slump in demand forced Japanese copper smelters to reduce production by about 10 percent this year.
Mitsubishi Materials Corp, Japan's No. 3 smelter, resumed full production of copper from this month, becoming the first among major copper producers to reverse cuts. The company, however, remains cautious in its outlook.
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