CRU/CESCO-Chile's Madeco to move to plastic from copper

SANTIAGO, April 1 (Reuters) - Chilean copper cable and pipe manufacturer Madeco MAD.SN(MAD.N) has decided to refocus its core business on the manufacture of plastics, citing slumping copper demand in Chile and Argentina.

Madeco Chief Executive Cristian Montes told Reuters at the CESCO Week/CRU copper conference in the Chilean capital Santiago that the copper cable and copper tube market had been hard hit by the global financial crisis.

He said the company would focus its business on making its resealable freezer bags, already a strong area of its business.

Copper prices are less than half what they were a year ago after the industry was hit by a demand slump sparked by the global economic crisis that sent many of the world's top economies into recession. (Reporting by Antonio de la Jara; writing by Pav Jordan; Editing by John Picinich)