Japan June aluminium stocks dip for fourth month

* End-June stocks down 14.7 pct vs May * Import decline behind stock drop, demand still slumped TOKYO, July 13 (Reuters) - Aluminium stocks held at key Japanese ports fell for the fourth month in a row, due to a sharp decline in imports of the metal as demand remains weak, trading house Marubeni Corp said on Monday. The major trading company said aluminium stocks held at the three Japanese ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka amounted to 207,600 tonnes at the end of June, down 35,700 tonnes or 14.7 percent from a month earlier. A Marubeni official attributed the decrease to the sharp decline in imports of the metal used heavily by the transport and packaging industries. "The decline in the latest figure is due most of all to the sharp reduction in the volume of aluminium that has been coming into Japan," he said. He noted that the production of key aluminium products is still down about 20 percent from year earlier levels, although this is still an improvement from the January to May period, when output was down by 30 percent or more. Port stocks are now near the year earlier figure of 202,800 tonnes, which is usually considered an appropriate level given that it is about one-month's worth of Japan's demand. The Marubeni official said, however, that a level of 200,000 tonnes or above could still be described as large in the current business climate given the decline in domestic demand. "End users are not suffering a shortage in metal," he said. Japan's imports of aluminium have fallen by 50 percent or more this year. June's figure, nevertheless, marks a sharp decrease from the 10-year high of 374,600 tonnes reported at the end of February, thanks to aggressive efforts to use stocks while sharply curbing imports. Port stocks have been declining since February. Japan began buying less of the metal after domestic manufacturers, most notably automakers, reduced production due to the steep economic downturn from last year. Japan's aluminium product shipments in May rose 1.7 percent from the previous month, marking the third month-on-month increase in a row. But the pace of the month-on-month rise was much slower than double-digit rises reported in March and April. [ID:nT336319] Following are details of Japanese aluminium stocks, including month-on-month and year-on-year comparisons (in tonnes): Yokohama Nagoya Osaka Total June 30 106,900 87,900 12,800 207,600 May 31 122,000 107,800 13,500 243,300 Apr 30 142,300 140,300 13,000 295,600 Mar 31 163,400 164,000 11,200 338,600 End-June 2008 93,500 94,800 14,500 202,800 (Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa, Editing by Michael Kahn)