INTERVIEW-Italy 2010 copper, aluminium product output seen flat

* First nine months seen flat, rise seen in the 4th quarter

* New order flows not stable, full recovery to take time

By Svetlana Kovalyova

MILAN, March 23 （Reuters） - Output of copper and aluminium semi-finished products in Italy is set to be flat or slightly higher this year than in 2009 as the industry slowly recovers from the crisis, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.

Italy, a major European producer, saw copper and alloy semi-finished product output fall 20.2 percent in 2009, while aluminium and alloy semi-finished products dropped 25.2 percent, according to Italy's non-ferrous metal association Assomet.  

“It would be good if for the entire copper and aluminium products industry we managed to maintain production levels of 2009, or have an increase of some percentage points,” Assomet Director Claudio De Cani told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“We can see a slight increase in the last quarter, but the first nine months are likely to be flat （on 2009）” De Cani said, declining to give more precise numeric forecasts.

Copper and alloy sector performed better than expected in 2009 thanks to a timid 0.7 percent increase in output in the fourth quarter of last year after double-digit falls in the previous three quarters, De Cani said.

Aluminium and alloy sector reduced production falls to 2.9 percent in the final quarter of 2009, but overall output in both sectors remained at very low historical levels last year as global economic crisis hit industrial demand, he said.

De Cani said “2009 was a terrible year … The full recovery will be very slow.”

STOP-AND-GO OF ORDERS 

Industrial consumers have started rebuilding stocks, practically cleared over a year of crisis since the last quarter of 2008, but with clients placing short-term orders the flow of new orders has been very uneven, he said.

For example, copper products output rose 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the crisis-hammered last quarter of 2008 thanks to demand from power industry, but orders dropped 8 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2010, he said.

“The stop-and-go of orders continues… It is not a stable recovery,” De Cani said, adding that strong metal prices have prompted some clients to put orders on hold.

More demand for copper and aluminium products is expected to come from construction sector due to government incentives to boost energy efficiency in residential housing, according to Assomet officials.

（Editing by James Jukwey）