Japan Electric Wire and Cable Shipment in Slow Recovery, December

Japanese domestic shipment of electric wire and cable was quickly estimated at 56,500 tonnes of copper in December, plus by 1% year-to-year, according to a survey on approximately 130 makers those who belong to Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association. The shipment for constructions and related wholesalers is estimated to exceed 25,000 tonnes for 2 months in a row and represent year-to-year plus for 5 straight months. Meanwhile, the actual shipment of optical fiber products in November kept year-to-year minus for export while plus for domestic market.

Quickly estimated shipment of electric wire and cable would hit the thirdly lowest as December in 35 years. The demand hit bottom but the volume recovery is still weak. In the demand field of constructions and related wholesalers, there are few large-size construction projects such as plants in Japan. Moreover, some concerns point out speculative demand has increased since September 2010 due to high copper price.

The actual shipment of optical fiber products totaled 2.718 million kilometers of fiber core (kmf) in November, decreasing by 13.7% from a year earlier.

The shipment for export dropped by 32.7% to 1.661 million kmf, which represented year-to-year minus for 6 straight months and below 2 million kmf for 2 months in a row. Domestic makers analyze overseas fiber production is recently increasing while strong yen impacts Japanese optical products’ export.

On the other hand, the shipment for domestic market increased by 55.6% to 1.057 million kmf, which represented year-to-year plus for 4 straight months and above 1 million kmf for 2 months in a row. Local governments are accelerating construction of local optical broadband network with Japanese government’s subsidy up to March 31st, 2011. Thus optical cable shipment temporarily rushed.