Japan's Mitsubishi Materials sees H1 copper output up 17% on year

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corp plans to produce 213,198 tonnes of refined copper in the first half of the 2023/24 financial year, it said on Monday, up 17.2% from the same period a year earlier.

The country's first half falls between April and September.

The increase comes as Mitsubishi Materials took full ownership of its Onahama Smelting and Refining copper joint venture in March, buying the stakes of DOWA Holdings and Furukawa Co.

Following are details of the company's output plan, with comparisons against planned production in the second half and actual production in the first half of the 2022/23 financial year, which ended on March 31.

(Copper and lead in tonnes):

H1 FY23/24 H2 FY22/23 H1 FY22/23

Copper 213,198 160,632 181,980

Lead 14,322 14,154 13,470

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Bernadette Baum)