Japan's Aluminum Stockpiles Soar 21% to 18-Month High in August

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Aluminum stockpiles at Japan's Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka ports jumped 21 percent to an estimated 245,200 metric tons at the end of August, the highest in 18 months, trading company Marubeni Corp. said today. Inventories increased from 202,300 tons on July 31 to the most since Feb. 28, 2007, when stockpiles reached 245,900 tons. Marubeni attributed the increase to slow demand during summer holidays and increased shipments from Australia, the largest supplier to Japan. A breakdown of the data follows: =============================================================== Yokohama Nagoya Osaka Total =============================================================== Aug. 31, 2008 119,000 114,200 12,000 245,200 July 31, 2008 91,400 98,300 12,600 202,300 Aug. 31, 2007 116,400 98,100 13,500 228,000 (Figures are in metric tons.)