Japan Official Copper Price Drops by 10,000 yen/t

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Thursday the firm reduced the official copper ingot price by 10,000 yen to 620,000 yen per tonne for March shipment. The averaged monthly price decreased to 620,000 yen after the third price changes in 10 days under volatile offshore market.The indicative copper price at London Metal Exchange hit US$ 5,051 per tonne temporally on March 3, which was the highest level after the record high on February 7 since LME shifted to dollar based transaction. However, the LME price plunged with the bad news including settlement of labor dispute in Mexico and stronger dollar in the week. The LME settlement price decreased to US$ 4,801 on Wednesday, which was the lowest level after US$ 4,701 on January 24. Japanese official price decreased though the foreign exchange rate of yen turned into weak.