Mitsui Mining's executive vice president, Seisi Kitaoka also told reporters that refined copper production rose to 77,687 tonnes in the period from 75,652 tonnes a year earlier, and lead output rose to 20,701 tonnes from 19,913 tonnes.

The company's exports of copper and zinc in the first half barely changed from last year, Kitaoka said. ``We will continue exporting our products to Southeast Asia this financial year despite the yen's advance against the dollar, which depresses our profits, as we have not seen any pick-up in local demand,'' he said.

He said the company has been exporting about 10 per cent of its zinc output and about 20 per cent of its copper output. In calendar 1998, Japan exported 46,681 tonnes of zinc, up from 22,905 tonnes in 1997, according to official statistics.

Traders said while it was less profitable for refiners to export refined metal than to sell output at home, where the industry is protected by import tariffs on base metals, weak domestic demand has forced refiners to shift their focus to exports since mid-1998.

Industry sources said domestic demand for zinc in 1999-2000 is estimated at around 620,000-630,000 tonnes, little changed from 1998-1999 and down sharply from 730,000 tonnes in 1997-98.

Mitsui Mining earlier on Friday announced its business results for the April-September first half of 1999-2000. It posted a parent current profit of 5.82 billion yen, down 12.5 per cent from a year earlier.

For the full year to March, it expects a parent current profit of 11.3 billion yen, up from 9.5 billion yen the past year.

Kitaoka said the 1999-2000 earnings forecast assumes an average dollar rate of 116.15 yen, zinc prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) will average $1,038.05 a tonne and copper prices on the LME will average $1,580.10 per tonne or 71.65 cents/lb.

In 1998-99, the dollar averaged 128.05 yen, the LME zinc price was $1,007.10 on an average and LME copper prices averaged $1,580.65 or 71.70 cents/lb, Mitsui Mining said in a statement.