Hitachi Cable to Raise High Valued Copper Strip Output

Hitachi Cable announced on Friday the firm plans to make monthly 7,800 tonnes of rolled copper products in copper weight in fiscal 2007 starting in April as the level in fiscal 2006. The firm has kept the Japanese top level of output in years under firm demand for appliances and growing demand for copper strip for lead frame of semiconductor despite of shrinking copper tube demand. The firm tries to focuses on copper strip supply to shift high valued products line.The firm increases the copper strip output by 6% to monthly 4,200 tonnes in fiscal 2007 from 4,150 tonnes fiscal 2006. The firm increases the output of strip and foil for lead frame and heat sink application to 74% of total strip output from 65% in fiscal 2006.The firm plans to decrease the copper tube output by 9% to monthly 2,450 tonnes in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006. The firm reduced the output by 17% for North American market in fiscal 2006 and expects lower demand for the area in fiscal 2007 though Japanese air conditioner demand will be flat at 7.4 million units in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006. The firm expects the sales of rolled copper products increased by around 17 billion yen to around 90 billion yen in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005 due to higher copper ingot price. The firm expects the copper ingot price is averaged 700,000 yen per tonne in fiscal 2007.