Japan Electric Cable Shipment Decreases in November

Japanese electric wire and cable shipment decreased by 2% to 77,400 tonnes of copper in November from a year ago among 139 electric wire and cable makers which belong to Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association, announced the Association on Friday. The shipment continued to decrease from a year earlier for building construction for 6 months in a row, which is the main demand field. The shipment for power companies decreased for the first time in 8 months.The shipment of optical fiber and cables increased by 7% to 1.96 million kilometers of fiber core in October from a year ago. The shipment kept increasing from a year earlier for 18 straight months but became to below 2 million kmc per month for the first time in 8 months.The growth of Japanese copper wire and cable shipment became slower after June 2006, when the shipment for building construction continued to decrease from a year ago since June, which accounts for more than 40% of the total shipment. In November the shipment also decreased for power companies and export. Then the total shipment decreased from a year ago.The shipment for building construction is especially weak for wholesalers. The total shipment keeps over 30,000 tonnes of copper per month even after June, which is regarded as a relatively high level. However, the shipment for electric contractors increased by 14% in April-September 2006 from the same period of 2005 while decreased by 7% for wholesalers.The background is the surge of electric cable prices due to high copper price. It is said middle- and small-sized contractors became unable to purchase electric cables by themselves for subcontracted orders from large contractors. The mid and small contractors seem to return material procurement to upper contractors. Additionally the cable users seemed to stop orders in November when Japanese official copper ingot price continued decreasing, the indicator for copper wire and cable prices, and the users expected the cable price would down more.