Wallets fat, Japanese trading companies ready to splurge on copper assets Anglo American’s $5.4 billion sale of its 24% stake in Codelco to Mitsubishi — Japan’s largest trading house — is just the beginning of further rounds of competition between Japanese trading houses for the red metal. According to Reuters, Japan’s top trading houses are flush with cash and ready to compete for copper assets, which they see as good prospects as demand for the metal rises and supply tightens: The competition is likely to drive up asset prices for potentially lucrative properties holding the base metal, with the trading houses jostling for the prize of becoming the top supplier for the world’s fifth biggest copper market and to tap surging demand in China and other emerging markets.