Japan’s output of rolled copper products rose 2.4% in May from April as strong demand for environmentally friendly air conditioners offset weakness in chips and cars.

The Japan Copper and Brass Association said that rolled copper output totalled 72,328 tonnes in May on a seasonally adjusted basis nearly flat from a year earlier.

An industry official said that output has been almost flat on a year-on-year basis since March, meaning the magnitude 9.0 earthquake during the month has not had a big impact on Japan’s rolled copper output. But it is clear that air conditioner makers are ramping up output ahead of the peak demand season which helped offset soft demand from the semiconductor and auto sectors.

Demand for copper, used in a wide range of items including construction materials, computer chips and car parts is often seen as a measure of economic activity.

The Japan Electric Wire and Cable Makers’ Association said last week that cable copper wire and cable shipments in May inched up from a year earlier to 51,200 tonnes. That was the first YoY rise in three months but the third lowest level for the month of May in 35 years as exports declined in the wake of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Japanese manufacturers have been recovering from the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, making progress in restoring production and supply chains wrecked by the disaster.

The government last week upgraded its view of the economy’s performance and outlook for the first time in 4 months following the previous week’s upgrade in the Bank of Japan’s view of the economy. But a slowdown of the global economy, particularly China, the world’s biggest consumer of copper and Japan’s biggest export market is a worrying sign.

According to the Ukrainian association of tube producers UkrTruboProm, in the current year Ukraine’s production of steel pipes may go up by 15-20 percent compared to 2010, to 2.2-2.3 million mt per year. However, the expected level of steel pipe production in 2011 is still lower than pre-crisis level of 2008, when Ukrainian companies produced 2.522 million mt of pipes.

Japan’s refined copper exports plunged 52 percent in May from a year earlier to 23,764 tonnes for an eighth straight month of year-on-year declines, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, reflecting slowing demand
from China, the world’s top copper consumer.

But exports inched up 0.8 percent from April, with China’s share also improving to 36 percent in May from 29 percent in April.

China accounted for 48.5 percent of Japanese refined copper exports in March.

China’s imports of refined copper fell 6.9 percent in May to a 30-month low after falling 16.6 percent in April on ample domestic stocks and a slowdown in demand.

Taiwan accounted for 32 percent of Japan’s exports in May, steady from April. Indonesia and Thailand are also key markets for Japan’s copper.

Demand for copper, used in utensils, construction materials and computer chips, is often seen as a gauge of economic activity.

As Japanese manufacturers began recovering from production disruptions after the massive March 11 earthquake, Japan’s output of rolled copper products rose 2.4 percent in May from April, helped by strong demand for environmentally friendly air conditioners, which offset weakness in chips and cars.

Brazilian steel mills are wary of China taking market share for finished steel products and the import of goods with a high concentration of Chinese steel, a national producer group said Tuesday.

Amid global steelmaking overcapacity, the weakness of China’s yuan and the strength of Brazil’s real is an attractive combination helping steel imports surge, particularly from China, Marco Polo de Mello Lopes, chief executive of the Brazil Steel Institute, said at the Coaltrans Brazil conference in Rio de Janeiro.

“There were 4.2 million mt in indirect imports of steel in 2010 of materials of a high steel content such as autoparts and together with finished steels this totals around 10 million mt,” Mello Lopes said. “This is the capacity of over two steel mills, or even the largest group in Brazil, so we can see how dramatic this situation was in 2010.” (more…)

Antofagasta Plc, the operator of four copper mines in Chile, expects to benefit from “huge demand” for metals as China and other emerging economies develop, said Chief Executive Officer Jean Paul Luksic.
“There’s a tremendous demand push by the industrialization and urbanization of China,” Luksic, whose billionaire family controls Antofagasta, said today in an interview in London. “You see huge demand for all these metals.”
The company will continue to invest in new mines in Chile and overseas to meet demand from the so-called BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, Luksic said. Mine projects will “take time” to meet rising demand, he said. (more…)

Brazil and China are heading for a battle of strategic necessity over copper in Africa that will leave the winner walking away with the most expensive acquisition of a diversified minerals company.

Jinchuan Group, the biggest Chinese nickel producer, is considering a bid for Johannesburg-based Metorex Ltd. (MTX) to rival Vale SA (VALE5)’s offer, two people familiar with the deal said yesterday. Metorex is trading 6.1 percent above Rio de Janeiro- based Vale’s proposal of 7.35 rand a share, the most of any pending deal in Africa, making it the likeliest to garner a higher price tag, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. (more…)

China, the largest steel maker in the world, saw its output of crude steel rise 7.8% year on year to a monthly record of 60.25 million metric tons in May, according to the latest statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The crude steel output was 2.07% more than the 59.03 million metric tons in April.

The NBS said earlier that the country’s crude steel output grew 8.3% year on year to 229.71 million metric tons in the first four months.

Last month, China’s output of steel products increased 10.6% year on year to 76.37 million metric tons. The figure was higher than the 73.15 million metric tons in April.

Baoshan Iron and Steel<600019>, a leading steel producer in China also known as Baosteel, said earlier this month that it would cut its main product prices for July bookings because of weak demand, reflecting the second price reduction since September 2010.

The 77 large- and medium-sized steel enterprises in China earned a combined net profit of RMB 32.98 billion in the first four months of this year, 2.12% less than in the same period of last year, said Luo Bingsheng, a senior official with the China Iron and Steel Association, China Knowledge reported earlier.