Copper output in Japan, the world's No 3 producer of the metal, will rise 25 percent in the April-September period from a disaster-hit low last year as smelters boost run rates, counting on a pick up in reconstruction demand and steady demand growth from emerging markets.
But zinc smelters, which had lost nearly 70 percent of their output capacity after the quake, will raise production by only 8 percent as high concentrate prices and a planned electricity rate hike take their toll. The gains will come off a low base a year ago, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 in northern Japan damaged facilities and ruptured supply chains of manufacturers in Japan and the global market.
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co, Japan's No 2 copper smelter, plans a record 436,000 tonnes in copper output in the year to March 2013, up 23 percent, as it will operate the 450,000 tonnes-a-year Toyo plant in western Japan at near full capacity after an overhaul.
China's demand for copper is solid and the company plans to gradually shift its focus to exports to make up for sluggish domestic demand, Nobumasa Kemori, president of Sumitomo Metal Mining, told Reuters in an interview last month. "China's economy may slow down, but its huge supply shortage of copper, estimated at 2.6 million tonnes a year, won't vanish soon," he said.
Output at Japan's top copper smelter Pan Pacific Co will be up 5 percent in the April-September period after a fire led to a one-month shutdown of the 200,000 tonne-a-year Saganoseki plant in western Japan, costing it lost production of 30,000 tonnes. "We hear that there is a supply shortage for exports due to the lost output," a trader said. Masanori Okada, president of JX Nippon Metal and Mining , the parent of Pan Pacific, told Reuters in an interview it had fulfilled export commitments partly through its South Korean affiliate, LS Nikko.
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