Consumption trends

摘要

Significant production cuts and job losses have been announced at a number of major wire and cable companies recently. At present this has mostly been confined to companies operating outside the energy cable sector, where volumes are still reported to be strong and stable. However, if major energy cable companies start to announce job cuts then copper demand will be in big trouble in 2009. The most significant workforce reduction has been at US wire and cable company Belden, which announced the loss of 1,800 staff worldwide (20 percent of its total workforce) as it responds to weaker demand and anticipation of continued economic weakness. Belden is the first of the 'majors' to announce significant job cuts. However, it is primarily a telecom and datacom cables provider.