Rio Tinto Alcan to Expand High Valued Products Sales to Japan

Rio Tinto Alcan tries to expand the sales of high valued products in Japan. The firm sells billet, slab and high purity ingot to Japanese buyers including light metal rerollers. The firm tries to expand the sales to Japanese users including offshore plants of Japanese manufacturers.

Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminium sales in Japan represents more than 25% of sales in Asia Pacific area and more than 10% of total sales. The high valued products represents more than 60% of sales in Japan while the firm sells annual 1.5-1.6 million tonnes of products in Asia Pacific area and the 55-60% is high valued products.

The firm sees Japanese construction demand is still slow but the demand for automobile, electronics and electronic machinery recovers in the year. The firm expects Japanese demand could keep stable in short term when the demand already recovered the level before the financial crisis.

The firm expects Japanese demand will decrease in longer term while the users increase the purchase for offshore plants. The firm tries to keep the sales volume by increasing the sales for offshore plants when the firm expects the manufacturers’ offshore shift continues to follow the demand and to be competitive under higher yen rate.