Japanese primary aluminium import increased by 15% to 124,015 tonnes in February from a year earlier, according to Ministry of Finance. Japanese major sash maker increased ingot import when the firm implemented alternate production for Thai operation after the flood disaster. The aluminium alloy import was 89,575 tonnes in February, which increased by 27% year-to-year while the import marked the lowest volume since August 2011.
The cathode copper import decreased by 62% to 1,272 tonnes in February from a year earlier. The Import volume of copper based scrap also maintained low when many Japanese copper alloy fabricators continued to reduce material procurement along with weak demand. The copper scrap import increased by 6.8% to 6,321 tonnes from a year earlier but maintained low volume since August 2011. The brass and phosphor bronze scrap import decreased by 22% to 1,913 tonnes. Other copper alloy scrap import decreased by 6.4% to 1,839 tonnes. The fined lead ingot kept year-to-year increase for 12 straight months through February. Japanese battery makers increased procurement of imported ingot since domestic supply of used lead battery maintained tight. The rectified zinc import represented first year-to-year plus since September 2011. The import increased by 52% to 1,585 tonnes. Domestic ingot supply had maintained easy since nonferrous smelters and trading houses expanded ingot import just after the Japan Earthquake and they had overstock of the ingot.