Japan Copper Import Increases in January

Japanese import of electrolytic copper (cathode copper) increased by 65.4% to 7,708 tonnes in January from a year ago, announced by Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. The import from Peru increased to 2.5 times and that from Chile increased by 23%.The copper scrap import also increased by 26.3% to 5,990 tonnes in January from a year ago thanks to high operations at domestic electric cable makers and copper alloy fabricators. The import of brass and bronze scrap increased by 42.9% and copper alloy scrap increased by 2.4%.The electrolytic lead import halved in January from a year ago, while zinc ingot with above 99.99% purity increased by 35.4% and zinc ingot with less than 99.99% purity increased to 3.1 times. The tin ingot import decreased slightly, of which from Indonesia downed by 12.3%.