Japanese Aluminium Products Demand Declines to 3.3MT in 2009

Japanese aluminium ingot and aluminium fabricated products demand decreased by 23.4% to 3.251 million tonnes in 2009 compared with 2008, announced by Japan Aluminium Association on Friday. The demand dropped down in the first 6 months due to economy downturnk.

By the demand fields, the demand shrank by more than 500,000 tonnes for transport and represented 2-digit year-to-year decrease for other fields. As a result, the total domestic demand approached down to 3 million tonnes. The export also declined by 40,000 tonnes despite of narrower range of drop than the domestic demand.

By the items, the demand decreased by 21.3% to 2.005 million tonnes for rolled aluminium products and by 29.5% to 291,900 tonnes for aluminium castings. The demand for die casting dropped by 30.6% to 733,700 tonnes.

By the applications, can material demand kept the volume almost as same as in 2008 thanks to the favorable sales of quasi-beer. Meanwhile, the demand totally showed the year-to-year decrease for the rest applications.

In January 2010, Japanese aluminium re-rollers’ production of flat products and extrusions increased by 26.2% to 148,000 tonnes from a year earlier while the shipment increased by 26.2% to 150,000 tonnes. Both the production and the shipment represented 2-digit year-to-year increase for 2 months in a row.

The production of flat products represented year-to-year increase for 2 months and the shipment for 3 months thanks to the demand recovery for automobile, aluminium foil and export. Production and shipment of aluminium extrusions showed year-to-year increase for 2 months due to the demand increase for automobiles. Production and shipment of aluminium foil increased by around 70%.