Copper Scrap Dealers Concerned with Extremely High Market

Copper scrap market price maintains high in Japan when the domestic official copper ingot price hit 1 million yen per tonne again on July 2. The market price was around 885 yen per kilogram for no.1 copper wire scrap around Tokyo on Monday, approaching to 900 yen again. However, market dealers are concerned scrap shipment might be impacted more when copper scrap market stays at the extremely high level.The market price of no.1 copper wire scrap was higher by around 25 yen per kg on Monday than on June 1, which hit the thirdly highest in 2007 even though lower by about 50 yen compared with record 938 yen in early May. The market price of brass turning scrap, mainly used by brass bar makers, was around 677 yen per kg on Monday, which increased by 180 yen compared with the yearly lowest at 500 yen in early February.Copper scrap market maintains high in Japan when overseas copper markets are stable. However, scrap dealers are unwilling to increase their inventories with expectation copper scrap market may turn to downtrend in summer when scrap demand seasonally declines. The dealers are also concerned about slow demand from copper scrap users. Especially the dealers hold surplus inventories of brass turning scrap when brass bar makers reduce their purchasing volume. Copper scrap export for China also became slower than before. A few months ago high grade scrap such as no.1 copper wire scrap was exported to China as well as low grade scrap. Exporter source said Chinese dealers are decreasing their purchase volume when Japanese domestic copper scrap market became higher.