Riverside, Calif., September 14, 2022
Dear Valued Customers of Bourns,
Bourns is aware of the recent new restrictions on the availability of copper wire/rods in North America due to:
- an ongoing labor strike at the copper wire supplier, Nexans Canada, Inc.'s Montreal rod mill plant, which was not resolved as expected last week, and
- the shutdown of ASARCO's copper rod mill plant located in Amarillo, Texas, whose parent company has announced it will not be producing copper rods in any of its other facilities to replace lost market capacity.
Bourns has received several disruptions of supply or Force Majeure notices from its immediate suppliers of cables who depend on copper wire and/or copper rods produced by Nexans and/or ASARCO.
Shortages will impact Bourns' automotive sensor production in Chihuahua, Mexico and fuel card production in Tijuana, Mexico. At present, our factories continue to receive intermittent supply, but such supply is insufficient, and threating rolling shutdowns from our factories to our customers starting as soon as September 26, 2022.
Bourns' affected suppliers are not giving any long-term visibility nor possible recovery schedule to customers. All supply is allocated based on availability week over week. Bourns has escalated to an upper management level with all of its copper wire-based cables suppliers who anticipate disruption. Bourns is also searching for an additional, immediately available supply of copper wire-based cables.
We are also diligently working on validating a European-based additional source for copper wire-based cables in order to diversify our sources for North American production. Bourns hopes that the strike at Nexans will not be prolonged but with closure of the ASARCO plant, the impact on the copper wire and cable market will be considerable.
Due to the dynamic situation and the potential ripple effect through the supply chain on many of our automotive offerings, please contact your Bourns representative for details relevant to your pending purchase orders and forecast. Your Bourns account managers will also be reaching out to discuss the impact.
Sincerely,
BOURNS, INC.
James Harrington
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
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Jack Sayed
VP, GM - Automotive Sensor Division
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