Japan Official Copper and Zinc Prices Drop Down

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Tuesday the firm revised down the official copper ingot price by 50,000 yen to 850,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in March. The latest price hit the lowest since 820,000 yen on 7 February, 2008 and dropped down by 11.5% or 110,000 yen from the recent peak on 6 March. Monthly average would be 891,000 yen without any more revision within March.Copper 3-month future price at London Metal Exchange was impacted by confusion in global financial markets and sharply declined to US$ 8,180 per tonne on 17 March, the lowest level since US$ 8,110 on 20 February, 2008. Telegraphic transfer selling rate on Tuesday was 98.02 yen per US dollar. Yen became the strongest against US dollar since 97.75 yen marked on 29 August, 1995.Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Tuesday the firm revised down the official zinc ingot price by 20,000 yen to 280,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in March. The latest price hit the lowest in 2 months to reflect weak zinc market at overseas and underlying trend of stronger yen against US dollar. Monthly average would be 297,000 yen without any more revision within March. LME zinc settlement was US$ 2,480.5 per tonne on 17 March, which downed by US$ 104.5 from the previous day and hit the lowest in 3 weeks.