Japanese Electrolytic Copper Production Increases by 18% in April

Japanese domestic production of nonferrous metal related products represented year-on-year increase for 15 items among total 20 items in April, according to the survey by Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry. The demand has recovered from car and electric appliance industries since a year earlier. Active export to Asia also contributed to the increase for several items. Meanwhile, compared with March, 17 items represented year-on-year decline in the production.

Electrolytic copper production increased by 18.4% from a year earlier along domestic smelters’ output recovery in accordance with economic upturn. Among copper rolled products, copper strip production expanded by 2.2 times from a year earlier, which is used for connector pins of electric appliances and automobiles or leadframe material for semiconductors.

Aluminium extrusion demand has recovered from car industry. The production for construction market also represented year-on-year increase for 3 straight months. Aluminium foil production increased mainly for capacitors.