Copper and Brass Suppliers Pessimistic about Purchasing in The First Half
Copper and brass buyers entered 2009 expressing one of the lowest buying sentiments of the decade, according to a January Purchasing poll. Only 9% believed they would be sourcing more copper and brass in the early weeks of the year. Similarly, a survey of brass mills, copper fabricators and distributors by the Copper & Brass Servicenter Association (CBSA) expressed little confidence for shipments in the first half of 2009.
The supply base reported "extremely sluggish performance" in 2008, according to the trade group's executive vice president, Frank Brown. Whether the comparison was for the first half of the year versus the first half or second half of last year, he says the projections were for declining sales and shipments in 2009 to all eight major markets.
The survey found the biggest projected drops in business were in the automotive and stamping sectors.
Brown says business conditions for metals service centers seemed to hinge on geography, key markets, product mix, and even on the size of the companies. A number of service centers had cut operations to four-day weeks. A number of CBSA-member executives supported the views of buyers copper and brass inventory building wasn't happening; instead, Brown says customers were "living off their inventories" rather than making new purchases.
Brown says "the automotive sector has long been an important end-use market for a significant number of service centers (but) industry's continuing problems, the difficulties during the second half of the year apparently are going to remain in 2009." He also says that since service centers commonly sell to the suppliers of the major truck and car companies, "it is certainly disquieting to hear that Ford Motor is planning to more than halve its number of suppliers from 750 from 1,600 currently."
The supply base reported "extremely sluggish performance" in 2008, according to the trade group's executive vice president, Frank Brown. Whether the comparison was for the first half of the year versus the first half or second half of last year, he says the projections were for declining sales and shipments in 2009 to all eight major markets.
The survey found the biggest projected drops in business were in the automotive and stamping sectors.
Brown says business conditions for metals service centers seemed to hinge on geography, key markets, product mix, and even on the size of the companies. A number of service centers had cut operations to four-day weeks. A number of CBSA-member executives supported the views of buyers copper and brass inventory building wasn't happening; instead, Brown says customers were "living off their inventories" rather than making new purchases.
Brown says "the automotive sector has long been an important end-use market for a significant number of service centers (but) industry's continuing problems, the difficulties during the second half of the year apparently are going to remain in 2009." He also says that since service centers commonly sell to the suppliers of the major truck and car companies, "it is certainly disquieting to hear that Ford Motor is planning to more than halve its number of suppliers from 750 from 1,600 currently."
source: www.purchasing.com
