Japan Official Copper Price Drops to 570,000 Yen/t

Japanese official copper ingot price plunged by 210,000 yen per tonne or 26.9% for 9 business days in October and became below 600,000 yen per tonne on 14 October. Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Tuesday the firm revised down the price by 60,000 yen to 570,000 yen for domestic shipment in October. The latest price hit the lowest since early December of 2005. The monthly average would be 609,000 yen without any more revision within October.

Copper market was impacted by economy slowdown concerns and worldwide stocks downturn along with financial crisis. Copper price at London Metal Exchange (LME) became below US$ 5,000 per tonne for both spot and 3-month future prices in afternoon trading on 10 October. LME copper price hit the bottom since March 2006. Copper spot price at New York Commodity Exchange declined to US 215.65 cents per pound on the same day, the lowest since 23 February, 2006.

On 13 October, worldwide stock markets and US dollar exchange recovered thanks to the capital injection and deposit protection plans hammered out at the meeting of central bankers and finance ministers from the G-7 industrialized nations. LME copper price regained US$ 5,000 again on the same day. However, the market rebound only helped narrowing the revision range of Japanese official ingot price.