Reuters reported that Japanese copper wire and cable shipments fell 1.6% from a year earlier to an estimated 59,500 tonnes in September.

An industry body said that Japanese appetite for copper, often seen as a gauge of economic activity and already weak in the wake of the global financial crisis, took a fresh beating after the March earthquake prompted user industries to reduce domestic production.

The September figure was up from a revised 53,895 tonnes of shipments the month before however data from the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association showed.

Demand from the telecommunications sector, power utilities and electric machinery fell from a year earlier although orders from the automobile industry inched up by 0.5%.

Shipments in the April to September H1 are estimated to have totalled 330,821 tonnes down 1.4% from the same period a year ago. That is the second lowest in the past 35 years following the H1 of the 2009 to 2010 year when demand reached 317,168 tonnes.

The industry expects shipments in the year to March 2012 to fall 2.2% from last year with utilities likely to slash capital spending as a halt to operations at nuclear power plants has inflated costs.

(Sourced from Reuters)