Japan’s aluminium stockpiles rise as imports rise and demand falls

Japan’s high aluminium imports and weakening demand in the domestic front and elsewhere in Asia has given rise to stockpiles held at the three important ports of Japan for the ninth straight month, hitting a record high in December.

The trading house, Marubeni Corp revealed on Friday that aluminium stocks held at Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka rose to 413,000 tonnes in December, up by 9% from November which was already the highest level recorded since April 2000.

The sudden rise of the stockpiles is due the reduced imports in China where export of the metal was seen to rise 19% last year, a trend that is expected to continue this year. Meanwhile, Japan’s import of aluminium ingot imports rose by 16% to 1.58 million tonnes during the period between January and November, according to the country’s trade data.

Traders say that stockpiles above 400,000 is pretty high and reflects the slowing demand in Japan due to weak consumption.

Japanese fabricators produced 169,789 tonnes of rolled aluminium in November falling 1.7% from a year earlier and marking the first decline in 15 months indicating the weakening demand in automobile and housing sectors.