Japanese cathode copper export increased by 78% to 47,035 tonnes in February from a year earlier, according to the trade statistics by Ministry of Finance. The export to China almost doubled to 26,092 tonnes. Copper shipment increased for Chinese players’ arbitrage when copper market price was higher at Shanghai Futures Exchange than at London Metal Exchange.
Copper scrap export was 26,470 tonnes in February, almost the same volume as a year earlier. By sequential comparison, the export expanded by 2.1 times from January. The export to China was 24,428 tonnes, the same volume as a year earlier while almost double of the previous month. The orders recovered after Chinese New Year holidays. Zinc ingot with 99.99% or more purity expanded by 2.7 times to 9,746 tonnes from a year earlier. The export jumped by 5 times to 5,402 tonnes for China and by 2.5 times to 1,977 tonnes for Taiwan. Aluminium scrap export kept flat at 9,362 tonnes. The export to South Korea increased by 7% to 1,302 tonnes. Various aluminium scrap items seemed to be exported to South Korea, mainly used beverage cans.