Japan Secondary Alloyed Aluminium Shipment Slows in July

Japanese secondary alloyed aluminium production decreased by 35.1% to 63,898 tonnes in July from a year earlier, which decreased for 14 months in a row, according to Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association. The shipment decreased by 36.4% to 63,821 tonnes, which decreased for 12 months in a row. The shipment decrease got widened for the first time in 5 months due to slowing demand recovery while the production decrease got narrower for 5 months in a row.

The shipment decreased by 36% to 36,410 tonnes for the largest application of die-casting industry in July from a year earlier. The shipment to casting decreased by 39.2% to 16,011 tonnes. The decrease expanded by 2-3 percentage points from June in the shipment to the 2 major applications.

Japanese major alloy makers’ capacity utilization is around 65-70% recently, which improved by 5 points in a month. However, the major users including die-casting makers shifted the production to China and other developing countries, which results in lower domestic demand. A major alloy maker source said the alloy demand could peak at around 70% of the recent peak in 2007.

The industry source concerns the alloy demand could decrease slightly again when small car production could peak in around a month while the sales is still firm.