Mitsui Mining & Smelting Seeks US$ 0.7-1/kg Hike for Electro-Copper Foil

Mitsui Mining & Smelting tries to increase the selling price of electrolytic copper foil for printed circuit board for May shipment. The firm started negotiation with users to seek US$ 0.7-1 per kilogram hike for commodity grade product with 35 micrometers thick for Asian market. The users finally accepted around US$ 1 of hike to more than US$ 8 per kg by mid-February under surge of copper ingot. The firm tries to pass the extra higher cost price when copper price keeps increasing. The price will reach US$ 9 per kg after users accepts another hike. Hither copper ingot price pressures the foil maker. Copper ingot price was more than US$ 5,000 per tonne at settlement of London Metal Exchange increasing the average monthly price to US$ 5,102.85 in March from US$ 4,982.4 in February. The price accelerated to increase since late March reaching record US$ 6,707 on April 21. The demand for electrolytic copper foil keeps firm. The world demand is expected to increase by 10% to 264,000 tonnes in 2006 from 2005. Mitsui Mining & Smelting keeps full capacity operation since July 2005. The firm sees no negative factor for the demand when special foil demand will increase in Japan along with strong demand in China.