Japan Official Copper Price Reaches 840,000 yen/t

Nippon Mining & Metals announced on Tuesday the firm raised the official copper ingot price by 10,000 yen to 840,000 yen per tonne for domestic shipment in April. The monthly averaged price in April was fixed at 776,500 yen per tonne. The revised price is at the highest level since April 1974 when the official copper price was 850,000 yen per tonne under raging inflation.Japanese official copper price was revised up rapidly with soaring copper market at overseas, especially the price at New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). NYMEX copper spot price jumped up by 18.20 cents to 324.80 cents per pound on Friday from Thursday, which equals US$ 7,160.5 per tonne. The price was supported by much inflow of speculative funds into precious and non-ferrous metals market when crude oil price marked the record at above US$ 75 per barrel on the same day. Copper spot price at London Metal Exchange followed the trend on Monday and marked the record at US$ 6,866 per tonne at settlement and US$ 6,890 at purchase price in afternoon session.