Furukawa Electric Ends Low Grade Copper Tube Production in Japan

Furukawa Electric withdraws from domestic production of standard-length copper tube coil without inner groove at the end of December along its copper tube business optimizing plan announced in May 2010. The firm has also ceased domestic production of non-round copper tube. Meanwhile, the firm continues production of level wound coil, several-hundred-meter copper tube coil wound on a drum, and straight copper tube.

Standard-length copper tube has no inner groove, wound in a coil shape and mostly delivered in a box. The product is sold through wholesalers as pneumatic pipes, hydraulic pipes and refrigerant pipes for air conditioners.

The product accounts for 1-2% in Furukawa Electric’s copper tube total sales. The price hike has been difficult due to the product’s low value even though the production cost has surged. The productivity seems to be worse compared with level wounded coil since the product requires cutting and box packing processes.

No-round copper tube is used mainly for large-size air conditioners, large-size refrigerators and oil coolers. These applications require high heat exchange performance. Meanwhile, domestic production of no-round copper tube is estimated at only 1-2 tonnes per year. The production cost is higher than ordinary copper tubes since the dedicated dice is needed to draw the shape and the output volume is small.

Furukawa Electric announced in May 2010 the firm reorganizes domestic copper tube production. The firm started to review its product mix in order to focus management resources into high functional products such as inner grooved tubes and processed copper tubes and to shrink low-value-added products.