Japan Official Copper Price Down, Lead and Zinc Up

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Thursday the firm set official copper ingot price at 760,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in March, down by 20,000 yen from the end of February. The official price was revised down when copper spot price at London Metal Exchange sharply declined to below US$ 6,000 per tonne again, which was the indicator for Japanese official copper price, and foreign exchange rate of yen became stronger against US dollar. Japanese official price has been decreased at the beginning of every month since November 2006.Outlook is unforeseeable for overseas copper markets recently. Source of Mitsubishi Corporation Futures & Securities said LME copper price would fluctuate in a narrow range around US$ 6,000 per tonne for a while.Mitsubishi Materials announced on Thursday the firm set official lead ingot price at 264,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in March, up by 4,000 yen from the end of February. The official price hit the record again following the previous revision when LME lead price maintained record high level with strong speculative purchasing due to production troubles in Australia and lower LME inventories. Japanese official lead price upped by 13,330 yen compared with the monthly average in February.Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Thursday the firm set official zinc ingot price at 456,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in March, up by 8,000 yen from the end of February. The official price increased by relatively small range when Japanese yen became sharply stronger against US dollar at the end of last month despite of higher LME zinc price in late February. Japanese official zinc price upped by 16,400 yen compared with the monthly average in February.