Aurubis CEO Says Copper Product Demand Recovers

HAMBURG, July 7 -- Aurubis, (NAFG.DE), Europe's largest copper producer, is experiencing better demand for some semi-finished copper products, its CEO told Reuters on Monday.

    "We reached the bottom point (in product demand) in March and in April had a slightly better capacity usage and a further improvement since May and June," said Bernd Drouven, CEO of the company, previously called Norddeutsche Affinerie.

    Main demand improvement was in cast wire rod products.

    "We notified short time working for our cast wire rod products plant in Hamburg in May but we have not required this short time working," he said.

    "This shows that we had reckoned with it but that the order intake has been better," he said on the sidelines of a metal industry event in Hamburg.

    Industries showing a demand improvement for cast rod products included automobiles and the electricity sector, he said.

    But order intake for continous cast formats was still weak, Drouven said. It had not fallen further but also not risen.

    Short time working was continuing for 100 personnel in the continuous cast format sector of the Hamburg plant, its German product subsidary Prymetall and a plant in Italy, a company spokeswoman added.

    Aurubis generates a high proportion of its earnings from sales of copper products rather than metal production but the company does not reveal the precise breakdown.

    It has about 2,000 personnel at its main Hamburg plant.

    (Source: Reuters)