Japan Al Products Demand to Rise by 5.2% in F2010

Japanese demand of aluminium products will increase by 5.2% to 3.696 million tonnes including export demand in fiscal 2010 starting April from fiscal 2009, announced by a joint research group of 7 industry groups including Japan Aluminium Association on Friday. The demand is around 27% lower than the peak of 4.457 million tonnes in fiscal 2006.

The demand is estimated to decrease by 7.4% to 3.513 million tonnes in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008. The demand is as low as 3.556 million tonnes in fiscal 1989. The demand recovers for rolled products while the demand is very slow for construction. The demand of castings and die-castings is still low level for automobile.

The demand will increase by 5.3% to 1.756 million tonnes for flat rolled and extrusion products in fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009. The demand will increase by 4.0% for flat products and by 7.0% for extrusion. The demand recovers for automobile while the demand for can decreases slightly. The castings demand will increases by 2.0% to 340,000 tonnes and the die-castings demand will increase by 4.4% to 859,000 tonnes due to better automobile production.

The demand will decrease by 25.8% to 25,000 tonnes for aluminium electric wire in fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009 due to lower demand for power companies. The aluminium export will increase by 14.4% to 256,000 tonnes with improving demand in China and Southeast Asia.