Copper Scrap Market Price Slightly Increases around Tokyo

Copper scrap market price represented slight upsurge around Tokyo on Wednesday. Overseas copper market price continued increasing and then Japanese market indicator, which is JX Nippon Mining & Metals’ electrolytic copper ingot price, is expected to be raised by 10,000-20,000 yen per tonne on September 1 from latest 730,000 yen. Scrap dealers are relieved of a concern of market price down and accepting higher offer prices by 5-10 yen per kilogram. However, actual trading was stagnant just before JX Nippon Mining & Metals’ latest indicator revision on September 1.

Scrap dealers had set their scrap purchasing prices unchanged though the market indicator was revised up by 10,000 yen to 730,000 yen on August 16. The main reason was uncertainty of overseas copper market prices. Now the indicator is likely to be raised on September 1 and scrap dealers are easy to raise their purchasing price by around 10 yen per kg for copper based scrap and by around 5 yen per kg for brass based scrap.

Supply and demand balance is relatively tight for copper based scrap. Thus scrap dealers are raising the price by around 10 yen. Current market price is 660-665 yen per kg for no.1 copper wire. Meanwhile, supply is loose for brass based scrap and the price hike is only 5 yen. Market price is 455-465 yen for new cutting brass scrap and 425-435 yen for brass turning scrap.

One scrap dealer showed an intention to keep the purchasing price unchanged if the indicator is raised by only 10,000 yen on Thursday. There were few scrap sales offers at the end of the month.