Japan Copper and Aluminium Export Decreases through 2008

Japanese copper scrap export totaled 395,530 tonnes through 2008, decreasing by 6% from 2007, according to the trade statistics by Ministry of Finance. The export bound for China decreased by 5.7% to 359,815 tonnes. Meanwhile, Japanese cathode copper kept the high level at 385,429 tonnes through 2008, decreasing slightly by 1.6% from 2007. The export for China increased by 12.2% to 212,212 tonnes. Aluminium scrap export decreased by 23% to 83,886 tonnes, that for China dropped by 23.2% to 64,218 tonnes.

According to the import statistics by Ministry of Finance, Japanese monthly import of nonferrous metal and scrap represented the year-on-year decrease for all items except for copper scrap in December 2008. Copper scrap import kept above 5,000 tonnes with delivery backlogs in December and became higher by 3.2% from a year earlier.