Daiki and Nikkei MC Restart Holiday Operations for Domestic Demand

Japanese major secondary aluminium alloy makers, Daiki Aluminium Industry and Nikkei MC Aluminium restarted plant operations on holidays to meet strong demand. Domestic alloy users are recently increasing secondary aluminium alloy orders for domestic ingot makers when procurement of offshore secondary aluminium is difficult. However, both of Daiki and Nikkei MC are cautious, not to restart suspended facilities or increase the employees.

Daiki has suspended a furnace in Yuki plant, Ibaraki, Japan and stopped aluminium melt supply from Shirakawa plant, Fukushima, Japan since January 2009. The firm lowered the operation capacity to about 75% of the peak level.

Daiki’s order receipts have rapidly increased this year since offshore secondary aluminium alloy became difficult to procure and the offer price surged. Daiki decided to restart plant operations even on calendar holidays.

Nikkei MC also restarted holiday operations at some domestic plants including Tochigi plant in response to the order receipt increase. The firm minimized the domestic capacity to 10,000 tonnes per month from previous 15,000 tonnes in autumn 2009.

Domestic demand for secondary aluminium alloy is expected to keep the steady level for April-June. The alloy demand is strong in China and recovering in Southeast Asia. As a result, offshore alloy makers are decreasing the offer volume to Japanese ingot users, according to Japanese trader source.