Japanese Shipment of Al Rolled Products Hits Below 2MT after 22 Years

Japanese aluminium re-rollers’ annual output of rolled aluminium products, including plates and extrusions, decreased by 22.5% to 1.736 million tonnes in 2009 from 2008 while the shipment decreased by 21.7% to 1.743 million tonnes, announced Japan Aluminium Association on Thursday. Both production and shipment hit below 2 million tonnes for the first time since 1987. The year-to-year rangeof drop exceeded 20 percentage points for the first time.

As to flat products, both output and shipment decreased for 2 years in a row. The shipment for automobiles barely sustained 100,000 tonnes but decreased by 36.3% from the previous year. The shipment for can materials kept almost unchanged compared with 2008. Output and shipment of extrusions decreased for 3 straight years. The demand for aluminium sashes and doors significantly declined when domestic construction market maintained stagnant.

Aluminium foil production and shipment also decreased for 3 straight years. The demand is rapidly recovering from capacitors at present but the wide volume down in January-March 2009 affected the annual figures.

In December, the monthly production of aluminium plates and extrusions was 160,193 tonnes, up by 11.1% from a year earlier, and the shipment was 155,925 tonnes, up by 9.1% from a year earlier. Both production and shipment represented year-to-year increase after 15 months.

The output of flat products showed year-to-year increase after 15 months while the shipment represented the increase for 2 months in a row. Extrusion shipment returned to year-to-year increase after 35 months thanks to the demand recovery from automobiles, despite of stagnant shipment for construction market.

Aluminium foil output and shipment showed year-to-year increase for 2 months in a row with strong demand from capacitors.