Japan Copper Export Increases for China in July

Japanese export of electrolytic copper (cathode copper) increased by 35.5% to 30,542 tonnes in July from a year earlier, according to the trade statistics announced by Ministry of Finance on Thursday. The export increased by 40.9% for China, the largest importer of Japanese electrolytic copper, while the export almost doubled for Thailand. Japanese copper scrap export also increased by 29.4% in July from a year earlier. The export increased by 27.6% for China, the largest importer of Japanese copper scrap.Japanese aluminium alloy ingot export increased by 40.5% in July from a year ago, which almost doubled to 1,199 tonnes for Australia. Japanese aluminium scrap export increased by 5.1% in July from a year earlier, which expanded to 19 times at 9,946 tonnes for South Korea. Most of aluminium scrap for South Korea seems used beverage can (UBC). Japanese UBC export to South Korea has increased since January 2007 and the uptrend continued in July.As to Japanese nonferrous metal imports, aluminium alloy scrap increased by 14.2% in July from a year ago when domestic production of secondary aluminium alloy keeps active mainly for automotive parts. On the other hand, the import of electrolytic copper (cathode copper) decreased by 13.7% to 7,104 tonnes in July from a year earlier, which decreased by 88.9% from South Korea. Japanese copper scrap import increased by 5.4%.