Japanese nonferrous metal products output increased for 10 items among 20 items in August from a year earlier while only 5 items represented year-on-year increase in July, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The major earthquake damaged production sites raised the operation rate and car output is increasing. However, the production of flat rolled aluminium and copper fabricated products was lower than year earlier due to the slow demand other than automobile.
The electrolytic copper production decreased by 12% to 114,545 tonnes in August from a year earlier. The range of decrease recovered from 18.6% in July when Onahama Smelting and Refining resumed the operation on July 1. The aluminium extrusion production was higher than year earlier in August for the first time in 3 months due to recovery of car output. However, flat rolled aluminium production decreased by 5.4% to 88,872 tonnes from a year earlier. Can material demand decreased when can makers built up the raw material inventory and increased the can output through July to prepare for energy saving to avoid large scale black out.
