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PrintJapanese secondary aluminum alloy smelter Nikkei MC Aluminum has raised run rates at its five plants in the country for April to around 60%, up from
50% in March, a company official said Monday.
Nikkei MC Aluminum has the capacity to produce a total of 190,000
mt/ year of secondary aluminum alloy.
The April operating rate would vary by plant, the official said. The
50,000 mt/year Mie plants that makes ADC12 alloys, located in central Japan, is to operate at 80% of its capacity while there is another plant running at just
30%, he added.
Some local consumers appeared to have cleared their stocks and were buying for April-May from local suppliers rather than import, he added.
"We have received orders for several lots of 100 mt sizes," he said.
Other industry sources, including diecasters who use the alloys, said that domestic aluminum alloy demand seemed to be bottoming out.
Japan's shipments of secondary aluminum products fell to a record low of 35,784 mt in February, data from the Japan Aluminum Alloy Refiners
Association showed.
Shipments were low in March too, but orders ranging from 5 mt to 100
mt started to trickle in this month, the start of the new financial year, sources said.
But most producer and consumer sources remained wary, saying that buying could slow down after "the start of the year purchase period".
One major diecaster that consumes more than 5,000 mt/month of alloys when operating at full rate said that his company was currently getting rid of stocks and had no plans to buy in April.
Separately, Japan's largest secondary aluminium smelter Daiki Aluminium
Industry has not yet set its operating rate for April, but it is unlikely to be lower than March, a company official said.
Daiki has the capacity to produce over 300,000 mt/year aluminium alloys at its five plants in the country, but a slump in automotive demand forced the company to reduce plant operating rates to less than 40-50% in February, and down further to 30-40% in March.
"From the beginning of the month, there are spotty orders for lots less than 5 mt or more than 20 mt or 100 mt," he said, adding that demand prospects were unclear. He was not sure if there was going to be a continuous flow for orders throughout the month.(Source: Platts)
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