Japan Secondary Al Shipment Shows Y/Y Increase for 3 Months

Japanese secondary aluminium and alloyed aluminium production increased by 8% to 73,351 tonnes in October from a year earlier, according to Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association. The shipment increased by 5% to 72,872 tonnes. The production represented year-to-year increase for two months in a row and the shipment kept the increase for three straight months.

The shipment for die casting kept year-to-year increase for three months through October. The shipment for casting represented the increase for two months. The shipment for steel making also marked 16.6% year-to-year increase mainly for deoxidizing agent and maintained the increase for three months.

On the other hand, the shipment for flat rolled products including can materials turned to year-to-year decrease after three months in October. One re-melted aluminium can scrap ingot maker source said the demand is decreasing as a recoil reduction of can makers’ production increase just after the Japan Earthquake and due to the non-demand season. The source sees RSI ingot shipment would decrease more.

As for raw material procurement, import of primary aluminium ingot sharply increased by 20% to 5,592 tonnes in October from a year earlier under historical strong yen trend. The import did not represent 5,000 tonnes per month even in 2010 when car production was very active. Base metal import dropped to 5,463 tonnes in October from high volume at slightly less than 10,000 tonnes in September.