Japan Secondary Aluminium Alloy Output Keeps Increasing

Japanese secondary aluminium and secondary aluminium alloy output increased by 6.5% to 95,688 tonnes in July from a year earlier, while the shipment increased by 5.8% to 95,865 tonnes, announced by Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association on Friday. Both production and shipment hit records as July due to strong demand for automobiles. The production represented year-to-year increase for 24 months in a row and the shipment for 26 months.The output and shipment increased mainly for castings and die castings. Japanese secondary aluminium alloy makers continue full production to meet strong demand for automobiles. Their operations kept full in August.Japanese import volume of secondary aluminium alloy is in the decreasing trend since overseas ingot is expensive compared with domestic ingot. The import decreased by 10.1% to 79,634 tonnes in July compared with June.However, secondary aluminium alloy maker source said some of the users such as die casting makers are likely to have increased purchasing volume of overseas secondary aluminium alloy since late August when Japanese yen became sharply stronger against US dollar. In the second half of August, Japanese import volume of Russian secondary aluminium seemed to increase.