Secondary Aluminium Alloy Ingot Makers Offer Strong Hike

Japanese secondary alloyed aluminium ingot makers offered the ingot users, such as die casting makers, the ingot price hike by more than 15 yen per kilogram for castings and by more than 10 yen per kg for die castings for March shipment compared with February shipment. The ingot makers aim to pass unachieved hikes in January and February on the selling price as well as covering productive cost expansion.The secondary alloyed aluminium ingot makers originally targeted price hike by more than 10 yen per kg for February shipment to reflect cost expansion such for materials, fuels and distribution. However, the ingot makers could raise the price only by 3-5 yen per kg for ingot and by 5-7 yen per kg for castings for February shipment compared with the previous month. The ingot users showed strong disapprovals.The ingot makers try to raise the ingot price by more than 10 yen per kg for die castings including unachieved 6 yen hike in February and by more than 15 yen per kg for castings including unachieved 9 yen hike in February.Domestic market price of aluminium scrap, the main material for secondary aluminium ingot, is likely to decrease in late March compared with present. Primary aluminium ingot price is declining at both home and overseas in recent several days and foreign exchange rate of yen sharply becomes stronger against US dollar.The secondary alloyed aluminium ingot makers are suffered from worse profitability despite of aluminium scrap price downtrend. Domestic aluminium scrap price still stays at high level. Additionally the ingot makers could not pass increasing productive costs on their selling prices enough so far.