Mitsui Mining ＆Smelting Revise Up the Official Zinc Ingot Price for Japan

Mitsui Mining & Smelting announced on Thursday that it revised up the official zinc ingot price by 5,000 yen per tonne to 274,000 yen for domestic shipment in January the day. It is because the price is rising at the overseas market. It has gone up to the level for the first time in five months and 15 years since August 21, 1990. The average official price in January has changed to 272,700 yen per tonne by this revision.Spot zinc ingot price at London Metal Exchange(LME) which is used as an index for Japanese official price decreased by US$ 3 per tonne to US$ 1977 on Wednesday local time with settlement base. However, it is higher than US$ 65 from US$ 1912 on January 3rd which was used an index for previous offisial price revision.While a rapid demand expansion for zinc continues centering on China, zinc is behind in mining development and supply and demand have been tight.For this reason, stock at Exchange is decreasing. Although there were 700,000 tonnes of zinc ingot stock at LM two years ago, there are less than 400,000 tonnes now. Zinc price has changing by firmer tone and the official zinc price in Japan also went up to 268,000 yen per tonne on December 12, last year.Then, it fell down to 252,000 yen temporarily. However, it has started with 269,000 yen per tonne updating the high price on January 4th in Japan because the price at LME had rebounded at the end of the year.