Japan Official Copper and Lead Prices Strongly Rebound

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Tuesday the firm raised the official copper ingot price by 30,000 yen to 890,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in February. The official price was revised up for 2 business days in a row on 8th and 12th February to reflect the strong uptrend of overseas copper markets. The latest price hit the highest since 910,000 yen on 5 November, 2006. The monthly average would be 871,000 yen without any more revision in February.Copper has been strongly purchased at overseas markets. Copper inventory held by London Metal Exchange (LME) decreased to 164,125 tonnes, the lowest since early November in 2007. At the same time, supply concern emerged due to the cold weather in China. LME copper settlement was US$ 7,820.5 per tonne on Monday, which hit the highest since 29 October, 2007. Copper spot price at New York Mercantile Exchange was US 355.35 cents per pound on Monday, which rebounded by 10.9% from the recent bottom at US 320.35 cents on 5 February and hit the highest since 17 October, 2007.Mitsubishi Materials announced on Tuesday the firm raised the official lead ingot price by 27,000 yen to 369,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in February. The latest price hit the highest since 3 December, 2007 to reflect the upsurge of overseas lead market. The monthly average would be 360,900 yen without any more revision in February. LME lead settlement continued increasing on Monday by US$ 132 to US$ 3,012 per tonne from Friday, which exceeded US$ 3,000 for the first time since 30 November, 2007.