Japan Official Copper Price Continues Dropping Down

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Friday the firm revised down the official copper ingot price by 60,000 yen to 510,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in October. The firm has reduced the price 5 times by total 270,000 yen or 34.6% during 12 business days in October. The latest price almost halved since the recent peak 1 million yen marked on 3 July, 2008 and hit the cheapest since 500,000 yen in early October of 2005. The monthly average would be 579,000 yen without any more revision within October.

Copper 3-month future price at London Metal Exchange was US$ 4,690 per tonne at the purchasing price in afternoon trading on 16 October, while copper spot price at New York Commodity Exchange was US 209.90 cents per pound on the same day. LME future price hit the bottom since US$ 4,612 on 24 January, 2006 while COMEX spot price became the lowest since US 207.50 cents on 30 November, 2005.

Additionally Japanese yen became sharply stronger against US dollar. The telegraphic transfer selling rate is currently around 101-102 yen per US dollar, stronger by 5-6 yen compared with the beginning of this month.