Ahresty to Resume Secondary Al Alloy Purchase in April

Tokyo based die-casting maker, Ahresty resumes secondary aluminium alloy purchase in April after the firm stopped the purchase for 3 months. The president Arata Takahashi said the firm purchases monthly 4,000 tonnes in April-June mainly from the Saitama plant while the firm purchases the alloy from third party at home and abroad.

The firm purchased monthly 8,000 tonnes of alloy without supplied materials from the customers at the peak in 2008. However, the firm reduced the alloy since October 2008 due to decreasing die-casting demand under major production cut by automakers. The firm stopped the alloy import from China in late October and stopped the purchase from domestic makers since January.

The firm decided to resume the alloy purchase when the alloy, materials in process and products inventory is getting to normal level. With the resumption, the firm tries to improve the operation rate at the Saitama plant from current less than 30% of the capacity when the plant’s production decreased gradually since last autumn and decreased to monthly less than 10,000 tonnes.

The firm, however, operates the die-casting plant at around 50% of the peak and expects the severe business condition could continue for months. Mr. Takahashi said the alloy purchase after July depends on automakers’ production recovery.