Electric Copper Cable Shipment Downs for 7 Months in Japan

Japanese domestic shipment of electric wire and cable was 65,000 tonnes of copper in May by Japanese 138 electric wire and cable makers those who belong to Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association, according to the tentative estimation by the association. The monthly shipment decreased by 2.5% from a year earlier and showed year-to-year down for 7 months in a row. The shipment was 74,076 tonnes in April, down by 0.4% from a year ago. The shipment of optical fiber products increased by 4.5% to 2.22 million kilometers of fiber core in April from a year ago.Copper wire and cable shipment for construction markets represented year-to-year decrease for 3 straight months to May, which accounts for around 45% of total domestic shipment. The shipment for construction markets had shown year-to-year down for July 2006-January 2007. The shipment has been in downtrend almost for a year due to less demand from wholesalers when copper metal and electric cable prices stay at extremely high level.Copper wire and cable shipment for electric machine and appliances represented year-to-year increase in May after 3 months. The shipment was also steady for automobiles, power companies and exports.Optical fiber products shipment has shown year-to-year increase for 24 straight months and exceeded 2 million kilometers of fiber core for 3 months in a row. The demand keeps active for optical fiber networks to household, so-called Fiber-to-the-Home.