Japanese domestic shipment of electric wire and cable was 55,100 tonnes of copper in July, according to the preliminary survey by Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association on its approximately 130 members. The shipment is estimated to decrease by 7.5% from a year earlier and represent the lowest volume as July.
The shipment for domestic construction market and related wholesalers would represent first year-to-year minus in July after twelve months. The shipment had temporarily expanded just after Japan Earthquake until May. In June and July, the shipment slowed down and represented even lower than the pre-disaster monthly average at approximately 24,900 tonnes for October 2010-March 2011. The shipment for automobile industry, mainly automotive wiring harness, is estimated to increase by 11.3% from a month earlier. The shipment would represent month-to-month increase for 3 straight months from the current bottom 3,102 tonnes in April. However, by year-to-year comparison, the shipment would still show 11.5% minus in July. As for optical fiber products, the actual shipment in June totaled 2.818 million kilometers of fiber length (kmf), 6.5% year-to-year minus. The export decreased by 12.6% to 2.151 million kmf while the shipment for domestic market increased by 20.3% to 667,000 kmf.