Brass Bar Price Keeps Flat in Weak Tone

Brass bar market price is flat with potential decrease at around 830 yen per kilogram for free-cutting bar with 25 millimeters diameter, at around 840 yen per kg for 10 mm diameter and at around 890 yen per kg for 5 mm diameter around Tokyo. The market price keeps flat after decreasing by about 50 yen per kg in late May to follow the plunge down of Japanese official copper price, the indicator for brass bar price, by 50,000 yen to 980,000 yen per tonne on May 15.The dealers tried to raise the reselling price of brass bar when the domestic copper price hit record 1.05 million yen per tonne in early May, dealer source said. However, brass bar market actually weakened because the official copper price turned to the sharp decrease.Brass bar shipment is stagnant. Actual demand recently became slower for applications related to automobiles and capital investments. Additionally brass bar users are minimizing their purchasing volume as much as immediate use when copper metal price widely and frequently fluctuates. Dealers’ shipment becomes slower as the market price becomes nominally higher.Copper product dealers could maintain strong selling stances in 2006 followed by the favorable demand. The market situation turned severer for the dealers this year. Most of the dealers aim to keep the present price level because the sales volume is expected not to increase even if they decrease the reselling price. The market price seems to stay at the level unless the domestic official copper price sharply declines.