Japan Copper Alloy Product Output Decreases in 1H

Copper alloyed product output decreased by 3% to 509,656 tonnes in Japan for January-June 2007 from the same period of 2006, announced by Japan Copper & Brass Association on Wednesday. Brass bar production decreased by about 10% from a year earlier and other large volume products including copper tube and phosphor bronze strip decreased as well. Backgrounds are that demand for copper alloyed products declined from automobile related industries and that the users minimized their purchasing volume due to extremely high copper price.The total production volume for January-June represented year-to-year decrease for the first time since 2005. All of large volume products declined other than copper strip. As to copper strip, a source said the demand is decreasing from semiconductor related industry even though the statistics didn’t reflect the actual condition thanks to the makers’ order backlogs.