wiredInUSA - April 2012
wiredInUSA - April 2012
Reuters reports that the chief
financial officer of Peru’s
Southern Copper is predicting
global supply of copper will
fall short of demand until
the second half of 2013 as
environmental and financing
difficulties delay new production
plants.
Project delays and unexpected
production halts havemaintained
a five-year copper supply
deficit of between 300,000
and 400,000 tonnes a year, or
about 3 percent of the world’s
production. There may a similar
gap this year, despite an
expected economic slowdown
in China, said Raul Jacob, CFO
of Southern Copper, Peru’s
largest producer of the metal.
“Eventually, supply will catch up
with demand at some point
in the second half of 2013,”
Jacob told Reuters after talking
to investors at the New York
Stock Exchange.
News that China, which
consumes about 40 percent of
the world’s copper production,
was cutting its 2012 growth
target to an eight-year low of
7.5 percent was only a “relative
concern” for Southern Copper.
“The 7.5 percent growth in
China’s GDP will eventually
convert into (growth of) 10
percent or higher in copper
demand,” Jacob forecasts,
adding that China bought “a
lot of copper” in 2009, when the
global economy plunged into
recession following the collapse
of financial markets.
Copper
shortfall ?
49
48
Seaborn Networks LLC will deploy
Seabras-1, the first submarine cable
system to provide a direct route between
the United States and São Paulo, Brazil -
the primary route for the majority
of Internet, data and voice traffic
between South America and the
rest of the world.
At current rates of growth, existing
submarine cables between the US and
Brazil will not provide adequate capacity
beyond 2016, even after taking into
account potential capacity upgrades
with new technology. In addition, these
aging systems will have less than half of
their engineering design life remaining
when Seabras-1 is deployed.
Seabras-1 will be a 32 Tbps system
connecting Miami and São Paulo, with
a branch that lands in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Activation is scheduled for 2014.
Previous submarine systems designed,
built and operated by Seaborn’s
workforce include 75 landing stations,
250 points of presence and 250,000km
of submarine cable (more than six times
the circumference of the Earth).
First
submarine cable
between US
and Brazil
