Japan Official Zinc Price Continues to Increase

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Wednesday the firm raised the official zinc ingot price by 9,000 yen to 419,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in April. The price was revised up 4 times in April and monthly averaged price became to 397,600 yen per tonne with surging zinc price at overseas market.Zinc price at London Metal Exchange (LME) increased by US$ 97 to US$ 3,182 per tonne at settlement on Tuesday from the previous trading day. LME zinc price marked the record for 8 trading days in a row and seems to increase more. LME zinc price jumped up by 58% from US$ 2,015 of recent bottom on February 16 with strong speculative purchasing. Japanese official price increased by 50% from 279,000 yen on February 20.