Japan Official Copper Price Continues to Down to 940,000 yen/t

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Friday the firm revised down the official copper ingot price by 30,000 yen to 940,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in August after the firm decreased the official price by 50,000 yen on 6 August. The latest price downed by 7.84% or 80,000 yen from the beginning of August, which hit the lowest since 930,000 yen on 11 June, 2007. The monthly average is 955,600 yen without any revision within August.

Overseas copper markets dropped down especially at New York Mercantile Exchange impacted by the worldwide stock decline caused from US subprime loan problem. Copper Markets were also impacted by the decline of crude oil price and the copper inventory increase held by London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.

LME copper spot price was US$ 7,570 per tonne at purchasing price in afternoon trading on Thursday and NYMEX copper spot price was US 337.20 cents per pound on the same day, both of which became the lowest since the end of June 2007. On 10 August telegraphic transfer selling rate was 118.99 yen per US dollar, which became to less than 119 yen for the first time since 3 April, 2007. Japanese official copper price was decreased widely due to the weak copper markets at overseas and the underlying strong trend of yen.

Japanese trader source expected the domestic copper ingot price could down to around 900,000 yen per tonne in a short term while NYMEX copper price might decline to less than the latest cheapest at US 328.75 per pound in June 2007.