Japan Copper Smelters Settle Premium for Taiwan Users at US$ 115/t

Japanese copper smelters almost finished price negotiation with Taiwanese users for 2007 shipment under long term contract. The premium on cash price at London Metal Exchange is around US$ 115 per tonne in line with CODELCO’s price. The smelters are expected to conclude the negotiation with users in South Korea and China at US$ 115 for South Korea and US$ 130 for China as CODELCO.

World largest copper producer of CODELOC’s premium is world standard. CODELOCO announced the premium is US$ 115 per tonne for Taiwan for 2007 shipment as 2006 shipment while the premium increases by US$ 3 to US$ 115 for South Korea and by US$ 5 to US$ 130 for China.

Japanese major smelters including Pan Pacific Copper (PPC), which is joint venture of Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting, had negotiated with users in Taiwan, South Korea and China for shipment for Asian users based on CODELCO’s premium.

The smelters concluded the negotiations with most of Taiwanese users at US$ 115 per tonne for 2007 shipment while the smelters are still in negotiations with some users. PPC apparently concluded the premium negotiation at US$ 1 lower than US$ 116 for 2006 shipment.

The smelters are expected to settle the negotiations with Chinese users at US$ 130 per tonne as CODELCO. Chinese buyers can buy Chilean copper ingot with free tariff after China agreed with Chile for the Free Trade Agreement. With the trade agreement, Chinese buyers will buy ingot from Japan with US$ 134 higher price based on US$ 6,700 per tonne cash price compared with from Chile.

Japanese smelters are expected to conclude the negotiation with South Korean users at US$ 115 per tonne as CODELOCO. The premium keeps more than US$ 100 under the firm demand after US$ 112 of premium for 2006 shipment.