Japan Official Lead and Zinc Prices Surge Up

Mitsubishi Materials announced on Monday the firm raised the official lead ingot price by 45,000 yen to 468,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in July. The price hit the record for 6 times in a row since mid June. The monthly average upped by 15,000 yen to 419,000 yen. Lead settlement price at London Metal Exchange surged up by US$ 150.5 to US$ 3,465 per tonne on Friday from Thursday, which renewed the record for 6 trading days in a row. LME lead price more than doubled from the beginning of this year and jumped up by about 30% within July.World lead supply is tightening. Lead ore shipment has stopped at Esperance port in Australia for more than 4 months. Chinese government started to add 10% tariff on its lead export last month. Additionally an explosion incident occurred at a lead refinery in Missouri, USA. Lead inventory held by LME is decreasing and likely to become below 40,000 tonnes for the first time in 3 months.Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Monday the firm raised the official zinc ingot price by 7,000 yen to 491,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in July. The price hit the highest since June 13 to reflect the upsurge of LME zinc price. The monthly average became to 475,800 yen. LME zinc settlement jumped up by US$ 85.5 to US$ 3,670.5 per tonne on Friday from Thursday following the increase of LME copper and lead.