China and Korea Ship Cheaper Secondary Al Alloy to Japan

Cheaper secondary aluminium alloy from China and South Korea seems to continue highly inflowing to Japan. The import almost doubled year-on-year since the beginning of this year. A Japanese trader source said offer price by Chinese major alloy maker is plunging down to C&F US$ 2,500-2,550 per tonne for ADC12 grade alloy in September. In South Korea, supply and demand balance of secondary aluminium alloy is loosening with concerns about weaker economy. South Korean alloy suppliers might continue offer cheap price to Japanese consumers.A trader source said Chinese market price of secondary aluminium alloy is sharply declining this month. The price downed by US$ 100-150 per tonne from the end of August and hit 270-280 yen per kilogram at the bottom.Japanese import of secondary aluminium alloy totaled 178,579 tonnes from China during January-July 2008, expanding by 1.8 times compared with the corresponding period of 2007, while the import from South Korea increased by 1.9 times year-on-year to 58,538 tonnes.Japanese alloy makers are damaged by large inflow of cheap secondary aluminium alloy. The market condition is expected to become even severer for Japanese alloy makers since the import from China and South Korea would continue increasing.