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By Yuka Obayashi
TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - The premiums for aluminium
shipments to Japanese buyers for April to June were set at
$125-$130 a tonne, up 45-53% from the previous quarter, to
reflect higher spot premiums elsewhere in Asia, four people
directly involved in pricing talks said.
The figures compare with $85-$86 per tonne paid in the
January-March quarter and mark the first quarterly increase in
six quarters. The higher prices are in line with or lower than
the initial offers of $125-$145 per tonne made by producers.
Japan is Asia's biggest importer of the light metal and the
premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to
pay each quarter over the benchmark London Metal Exchange (LME)
cash price set the benchmark for the region.
The hike reflected higher premiums in other Asian markets
such as South Korea while the premiums in the United States and
Europe remained at high levels, a source from a Japanese trading
house said.
"We had to compromise to agree at $130 this week as a
producer was not going to lower its offer any further," a source
at a Japanese fabricator said.
Both sides share the view that local demand for the
light metal remains weak due to slow recovery in automobile
production, causing high levels of inventories.
Aluminium stocks at three major Japanese ports stood at 370,700 tonnes at the end of March,
above 354,300 tonnes a year earlier, according to Marubeni Corp .
But lower import during the last quarter will likely
trim the inventory in the coming months, another source at a
producer said.
Japan's import of aluminium and aluminium alloys in
January-March declined by 23% from a year earlier, the trade
data shows.
The quarterly pricing talks, which began in late
February between Japanese buyers and global suppliers, including
Rio Tinto Ltd and South32 Ltd , have dragged on
for a month longer than usual because of a wide gap in two
sides' market outlooks. The last round of talks also
lasted long
.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi
Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Alexandra Hudson)
