Japan Nonferrous Metals Ingot Prices Rise for June

Japanese official price increased for nonferrous metals ingot for June shipment under higher offshore market and the lowest yen rate since mid-December 2002. The copper official price increased by 30,000 yen to 970,000 yen per tonne and the lead price increased by 29,000 yen to 329,000 yen, which was 27-year high. The zinc price increased by 9,000 yen to 493,000 yen. The copper price decreased by 110,000 yen to 940,000 yen per tonne on May 23 due to plunge of offshore market after record 1.05 million yen on May 7. The offshore market is expected to increase more when the price hit bottom at 318.35 US cents per pound at New York Mercantile Exchange on May 24. Speculators increase the purchase with positive signs including less than 130,000 tonnes copper inventory held by London Metal Exchange and strike at Chilean mine. Japanese official price could reach 1 million yen per tonne again when the offshore market is expected to increase to 350 US cents per pound at NYMEX and US$ 7,000 per tonne at LME. Japanese zinc ingot price could reach 500,000 yen per tonne. The offshore market could increase when LME inventory decreased by more than 30% to around 75,000 tonnes in 2 months. Lead price is uncertain though LME lead price increased for 3 consecutive trading days to US$ 2,349 per tonne on May 31, which was US$ 69 higher than previous day. Major lead mine of Magellan in Australia cannot ship the ore for more than 2 months due to termination of shipping at Esperance port caused by lead pollution. However, LME lead inventory increased to near 50,000 tonnes for the first time in 5 months.