Japan Brass Bar Makers Offer Scrap Purchase Price Cut

Japanese brass bar makers are offering brass turning scrap price cut against scrap dealers by 2,000-3,000 yen per tonne for January-March. Domestic demand has sharply decreased for brass bar since September. Brass bar makers are offering lower scrap purchasing price and volume when the demand could decrease more in January-March. The dealers currently hold surplus scrap inventories. Thus the dealers are likely to approve the makers’ requests.

Some brass bar makers started to offer price cut against scrap dealers in mid-December. For October-December, most brass bar makers purchase brass turning scrap at the price about 10,000 yen lower than the domestic indicator of Nippon Shindo’s brass turning scrap purchasing price.

Japanese brass bar production had maintained around 17,000 tonnes per month until July. The volume sharply decreased to less than 16,000 tonnes in September and to around 14,000 tonnes in October. Scrap dealers hold surplus inventories of brass turning scrap when brass bar makers are reducing material procurement.

Copper scrap dealers suffer worse profitability since offshore electrolytic copper market price decreased in September and they posted inventory evaluation losses. One scrap dealer said they are forced to approve price cut requests due to low demand for brass turning scrap. One major brass bar maker suggested brass bar shipment would not recover by March.