Japan Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association announced on Wednesday around 130 member makers’ Japanese electric wire and cable shipment increased by 1.3% to 53,700 tonnes of copper in August from a year earlier. Despite of the year-on-year increase, the shipment level was the third lowest in past 35 years as August after 2009 and 2010.
The shipment for domestic construction market and related wholesalers represented average 23,000 tonnes per month for June-August. The shipment level was lower than the monthly average of around 24,900 tonnes in the second half of fiscal 2010 ended in March 2011 due to slow construction market. The shipment to domestic power companies, which is used mainly for domestic power transmission and distribution networks, would hit year-on-year double digit decrease for 2 months in a row through August. On the other hand, the shipment for automobiles, which is mainly for wiring harness, hit first year-on-year increase in 11 months. The actual shipment of optical fiber products in July increased by 6.5% to 3.113 million kilometers of fiber core (kmf) from a year earlier. The shipment hit first 3 million kmf and first year-on-year plus in 5 months.