Japan Official Copper and Zinc Prices Sharply Down

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Monday the firm revised down the official copper ingot priced by 50,000 yen to 970,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in August. The official price became to below 1 million yen for the first time since June. The monthly average would be 976,500 yen for August without any more revision.

Overseas copper markets hit the lowest since the end of June at both London Metal Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. LME copper spot price was US$ 7,803 per tonne in afternoon trading on Friday and NYMEX copper spot price was US 348.45 cents per pound on the same day. Copper markets plunged down when US housing market declined and US economic indexes turned worse due to US subprime loan problem.

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Monday the firm revised down the official zinc ingot price by 19,000 yen to 450,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in August. The official price was decreased due to the decline of overseas zinc market and the underlying strong yen trend against US dollar. The monthly average became to 452,500 yen.

LME zinc settlement downed by US$ 75 to US$ 3,515 per tonne on Friday from Thursday, the lowest price in a month, when LME nonferrous metal markets wholly weakened due to the decline of US stock market.