Japan Official Zinc Price Plunges to 485,000 Yen/t

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Wednesday the firm decreased official zinc ingot price by 58,000 yen to 485,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in January. The monthly averaged price declined to 494,200 yen. The official price was revised down when zinc spot price at London Metal Exchange was weak following the plunge of LME copper price. LME zinc spot price weakened to below US$ 4,000 per tonne for the first time since October 2006.LME zinc settlement price continued decreasing by US$ 121.5 to US$ 3,699 per tonne on Tuesday from Monday, which was US$ 4,259 on January 2 and dropped by 13% after 5 trading days. Zinc inventory held by LME increased by 3,100 tonnes to 94,075 tonnes on Tuesday from Monday. However, the inventory volume still stays as historically low as 3 days of world ingot consumption.World zinc supply is generally expected to become easier in late 2007 or 2008. LME zinc price is weakening even under the extremely tight supply when speculative selling impacts nonferrous metals markets, mainly copper, under the influence of the plunge of crude oil price.