Japan Zn Official Price Drops by 10,000Y/T

Mitsui Mining & Smelting revised down the official zinc ingot price by 10,000 yen to 185,000 yen per tonne for April shipment, which represented first decrease in 2 months, announced on Thursday. The monthly averaged price decreased by 2,000 yen to 182,000 yen from a previous revision on Monday without any more revision within April. The firm reflected that overseas market price of zinc, which continued increasing, turned downward from this week.

Zinc settlement at London Metal Exchange decreased by US$ 81.5 to $ 1,420.5 per tonne on Wednesday compared with April 17.

Telegraphic transfer selling rate was 98.79 yen per dollar on Thursday, which was 1.44 yen higher than the level at the previous price revision. Appreciation of yen forced Mitsui Mining & Smelting to expand the official price decrease.

Nonferrous metals market price is rising since late February when the demand in China was firm. Mitsui Mining & Smelting’s zinc official price on previous revision was 39% higher than the bottom of 140,000 yen per tonne at the end of February.

However, nonferrous metals price stopped surging at the end of past week and turned downward in this week. Zinc price dropped due to the sharp fall at Shanghai Futures Exchange.