Firm Demand for Secondary Aluminium Ingot in Japan

Japanese production of secondary aluminium and aluminium alloy ingot was 88,646 tonnes and the shipment was 88,400 tonnes in April, both of which marked records as monthly results in April, announced Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association on Thursday. The monthly production increased from a year earlier for 9 straight months and the shipment for 11 months thanks to firm demand for automobile parts.The total output increased by 1.9% to 88,646 tonnes in April from a year earlier, 36% of which was produced in Tokyo area at 31,885 tonnes, 36% in Nagoya area at 31,613 tonnes, 24% in Osaka area at 20,846 tonnes and 5% in Kyusyu, Chugoku and Shikoku area at 4,302 tonnes.The shipment increased by 1.9% to 88,400 tonnes in April from a year earlier, 23,744 tonnes of which was for casting products increasing by 5.2% from a year ago, 47,590 tonnes for die casting products increasing by 3.1%. The shipment decreased by 3% to 6,066 tonnes for flat products, by 5.2% to 5,755 tonnes for extrusions, by 13.4% to 2,340 tonnes for steel products and by 3.3% to 2,865 tonnes for aluminium alloy ingot. The export almost doubled to 40 tonnes in April from a year ago.The shipment for steel products seemed to decrease when steel makers reviewed their products line-up under material costs expansion.