Japanese copper smelter output seen falling despite demand recovery
02/04/2021 09:40
By Yuka Obayashi
TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) - Japan's output of refined copper
in the first half of the 2021/22 financial year will fall 1.9%
year on year, Reuters calculations from plans outlined by
smelters showed, despite recovering demand from a slump during
the pandemic.
The weak forecast comes also amid fears that a recent fire
at a Japanese semiconductor factory will aggravate a global chip
shortage and force automakers to cut output. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2LT3N4
Japan's biggest copper supplier Pan Pacific Copper (PPC)
plans to slightly raise its output, but most others including
second-ranked Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM) 5713.T and
third-ranked Mitsubishi Materials 5711.T have plans for lower
output from April to September.
SMM is planning maintenance at its Toyo factory and
operations at Mitsubishi Material's Onahama plant have slowed
due to a problem with an external company's system to supply
oxygen. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2LU1QS urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2LU1SE
PPC, jointly owned by JX Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui
Mining and Smelting 5706.T , expects domestic demand of wrought
copper products will improve this year from last on stronger
output by automakers and semiconductor makers, a PPC spokesman
said.
Japan's demand for wrought copper products is forecast to
rise 13.4% in the 2021/22 year after falling 11.7% a year
earlier, the Japan Copper and Brass Association said this week.
"But overall copper demand won't reach the 2019 level as the
pace of recovery in construction is slow, weighing on electric
wire demand," the PPC spokesman said.
A chip-making factory owned by Renesas Electronics 6723.T ,
which accounts for 30% of the global market for microcontroller
units used in cars, was hit by fire last month and the company
said on Tuesday it would take at least 100 days for production
to normalize at the plant in northeast Japan. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LT05X
"We have not seen any signs of slowing orders from
automakers yet, but we are concerned the chip shortage may force
them to slash output," a SMM spokeswoman said.
Below are the production plans of base metals in tonnes for
April to September from PPC, SMM, Mitsubishi Materials, Furukawa
5715.T , Dowa Holdings 5714.T , Mitsui Mining, Nittetsu Mining
1515.T and Toho Zinc 5707.T .
The table shows comparisons against planned production in
the second half and actual output in the first half of the
2020/21 financial year that ended on March 31. SMM's second-half
forecast is based on the company's estimate in February.
H1 H2 H1
FY2021/22 FY2020/21 FY2020/21 y/y
Copper
PPC 303,700 302,900 293,900 3.3
SMM 210,500 224,000 218,994 -3.9
Mitsubishi 165,546 160,086 179,316 -7.7
Furukawa 36,859 36,710 37,517 -1.8
Dowa 29,285 32,443 31,068 -5.7
Nittetsu 24,776 24,775 24,776 0
TOTAL 770,666 780,914 785,571 -1.9
Zinc
Mitsui 109,100 115,900 99,600 9.5
Dowa 82,006 93,490 76,395 7.3
Toho Zinc 44,100 47,203 40,805 8.1
TOTAL 235,206 256,593 216,800 8.5
Lead
Toho Zinc 47,900 40,110 48,454 -1.1
Mitsui 35,300 35,900 33,600 5.1
Mitsubishi 13,350 12,030 12,996 2.7
Dowa 5,403 6,238 5,242 3.1
TOTAL 101,953 94,278 100,292 1.7
Nickel
SMM 28,500 27,500 28,560 -0.2
Ferronickel
SMM 7,100 7,000 5,931 19.7
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4520-1265;))