Japan Electric Wire Shipment Slows Down in August

Japanese domestic shipment of electric wire and cable was quickly estimated at 50,100 tonnes of copper in August, down by 17.7% from a year earlier, announced by Japanese Electric Wire & Cable Makers’ Association on September 17. The shipment represented month-to-month decrease for all application fields due to less business days in August than in July. Compared with August 2008, the shipment showed year-to-year plus only for domestic power companies.

The shipment for domestic construction market and related wholesalers averaged 22,600 tonnes per month for April-August 2009. The averaged shipment was 32,600 tonnes per month in fiscal 2005 (April 2005-March 2006) of the recent peak. The shipment is shrinking by 30% due to less demand for building wires along slow capital expenditures by domestic industries.

On the other hand, the shipment for domestic power companies represented year-to-year plus in July and August. The shipment stably stays at around 6,000 tonnes per month thanks to power companies’ active investment to renew old facilities.

The actual shipment of optical fiber products increased by 5.4% to 3.07 million kilometers of fiber core in July from a year earlier, which exceeded 3 million kmf for 2 months in a row due to strong demand from overseas markets. The export increased by 10.9% to 2.36 kmf while the shipment for domestic market decreased by 9.6% to 707,000 kmf.