Japan Electrolytic Copper Foil Makers Plan Wider Yearend Idle

Japanese electrolytic copper foil makers reduce the operation to meet lower demand level. They don’t disclose the concrete figure but they adjust operation by stopping the production for 2 weeks in yearend and New Year holiday or stopping operation since mid-December. Some makers reduce the copper scrap purchase volume by 70-80% in January-March period from October-December indicating slower production through March.

The makers start to reduce the operation in yearend holiday from around December 29. But a major maker stops the operation for 2 weeks through early January while the firm keeps the warming operation without production. Other makers plan to reduce the production level lower than usual in the holiday for around 7 days. A smaller sized maker already stopped the production on December 12 to stop the operation through the year while the firm planned holiday outage from December 29 to January 4.

Some makers plan to reduce no.1 copper scrap purchase volume by 70-80% in January-March from October-December while other makers plan more than 50% cut. They expect lower level operation in January-March due to slump for demand of appliances and cell phone.

The foil makers usually keep the operation in the yearend holiday. They reduce the capacity utilization but they tend to avoid stoppage when the stoppage would take more cost and time to resume the operation.