06 NOVEMBER 2012Platts
Japanese traders seek to sell more European secondary aluminum alloy to diecasters
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
Japanese traders are seeking to increase sales of European secondary aluminum alloy to local diecasters making automotive components, industry sources said Tuesday.
One diecaster source with three plants in west Japan, making engine parts, said offers from Japanese traders for European ADC12 aluminum alloys started to increase in July.
"We cannot switch raw materials suddenly as we need to talk to our customers. We use mostly local and some Chinese-origin material. But trading houses continue to contact us," said a source at one of the plants with roughly 500 mt/month consumption.
He added his purchase criteria were price and quality consistency.
"If European material was Yen 10/kg (12 cents/kg) cheaper [than the alloys he currently buys], I would find it extremely attractive," he added.
The drive to sell European ADC12 in Japan started to increase from the second quarter, as European producers suffered slowing demand at home.
In the past two weeks, the spot import trade for Russian and south European ADC12 was active as they were $10-30/mt lower than Chinese material.
Two Japanese traders said European producers were offering $2,130-2,140/mt CIF Japan, December shipments, while offers from China were over $2,150/mt CIF Japan, December shipments.
Meanwhile, the most competitive offer was for a 300-400 mt lot from East Africa, at $2,080/mt CIF Japan for December shipments.
This week, several deals were reported at $2,130-2,140/mt CIF Japan for over 500 mt of European material, while for the Chinese material, only one deal was heard at around $2,160/mt CIF Japan.
Separately, sales representatives from an Italian producer were in Japan this week, visiting Japanese customers, according to one trader.
One diecaster source with three plants in west Japan, making engine parts, said offers from Japanese traders for European ADC12 aluminum alloys started to increase in July.
"We cannot switch raw materials suddenly as we need to talk to our customers. We use mostly local and some Chinese-origin material. But trading houses continue to contact us," said a source at one of the plants with roughly 500 mt/month consumption.
He added his purchase criteria were price and quality consistency.
"If European material was Yen 10/kg (12 cents/kg) cheaper [than the alloys he currently buys], I would find it extremely attractive," he added.
The drive to sell European ADC12 in Japan started to increase from the second quarter, as European producers suffered slowing demand at home.
In the past two weeks, the spot import trade for Russian and south European ADC12 was active as they were $10-30/mt lower than Chinese material.
Two Japanese traders said European producers were offering $2,130-2,140/mt CIF Japan, December shipments, while offers from China were over $2,150/mt CIF Japan, December shipments.
Meanwhile, the most competitive offer was for a 300-400 mt lot from East Africa, at $2,080/mt CIF Japan for December shipments.
This week, several deals were reported at $2,130-2,140/mt CIF Japan for over 500 mt of European material, while for the Chinese material, only one deal was heard at around $2,160/mt CIF Japan.
Separately, sales representatives from an Italian producer were in Japan this week, visiting Japanese customers, according to one trader.
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