Japan Copper Ingot Price Drops by 20,000 yen/t

Japanese official copper ingot price decreased again when offshore copper price accelerated to decrease with no support point though the foreign exchange rate of yen decreased to lowest level since December 2002 after Bank of Japan decided not to increase interest rate. The domestic official copper price is expected to decrease more even after the price decreased by 110,000 yen or 12.3% in the 3 drops in the only 11 business days since January 4. Nippon Mining & Metals decreased the official copper ingot price by 20,000 yen to 710,000 yen per tonne for January shipment on Friday decreasing the average monthly price to 727,800 yen. The firm reduced the price due to drop of offshore market only 3 days after the 20,000 yen reduction on January 16. The new official price is the lowest level since April 3, 2006. The series of reductions for domestic official copper ingot price impact on the down stream market. Dealers of electric wire stopped to buy construction electric wire while major electric wire working suppliers are reluctant to purchase materials for major projects. Rolled copper market price is expected to decrease when the dealers decrease the reselling price by around 50 yen per kilogram for sales from inventory effective on Monday.