Japan Copper Smelters in Tough Talk for Ore

Japanese copper smelters are in price talk with offshore miners for copper ore for 2008-09 shipment in Bangkok, Thailand after Chinese and Indian smelters already settled the negotiation to increase the price by 20-25% from previous year. Japanese smelters try to minimize the cost up and the price hike could be 15-20%. Pan Pacific Copper, which is joint venture of Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting, and Sumitomo Metal Mining are negotiating with BHP Billiton, which has Escondida mine in Chile, and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, which has Grasberg mine in Indonesia. Chinese and Indian smelters apparently accepted US$ 45-47 per tonne of treatment charge and 4.5-4.7 US cents per pound of refining charge. The charges represent 11-12 US cents per pound for concentrate with 30% of copper, which is 20-25% lower than previous year. A source of Japanese smelter said Japanese smelters would accept certain hike for copper concentrate. Another smelter source said the charge could be US$ 45-50 per tonne for treatment charge and 4.5-5 US cents per pound for refining charge.