Japan Official Copper and Zinc Prices Continue to Increase

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Wednesday the firm raised official copper ingot price by 30,000 yen to 970,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in July. The price was revised up 4 times in a row in July and recovered the level as high as one and a half months ago, when overseas copper markets rebounded and continued increasing since late June. The official price might regain 1 million yen for the first time after May 15. The monthly averaged price became to 951,500 yen.Japanese official copper price reached record 1 million yen per tonne on May 15 and declined sharply to 840,000 yen by June 20 due to the plunge of overseas copper markets. Overseas nonferrous metals market turned to the recovery led by the increase of nickel price at London Metal Exchange (LME). Japanese official copper price increased by 15% in these 3 weeks following the offshore trend.Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Wednesday the firm raised official zinc ingot price by 25,000 yen to 452,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in July. The price recovered to the level as high as a month ago thanks to the increase of overseas zinc market. The monthly averaged price became to 441,300 yen.LME zinc spot price jumped up by US$ 210.5 to US$ 3,565.5 per tonne at settlement on Tuesday from Monday. The price increased by 21% from US$ 2,940 of recent bottom on June 23. Japanese official zinc price also increased by 19% from 379,000 yen per tonne on June 21. The official price marked the record at 471,000 yen on May 12.