Reuters reported that aluminum stocks held at 3 major Japanese ports came to 225,800 tonnes at the end of October down 4,600 tonnes or 2% from a month earlier.
A Marubeni official said that the main reason for the dip is low deliveries to ports. At the same time, deliveries from ports were not that big, but there were some delivered to the building sector. Spot activities have also been slow, due to the uncertain outlook for domestic demand. The official said that current levels of aluminum stocks were neither excessive nor tight and is expected to stay around these levels.
Industry officials have said that Japan which must buy nearly all the metal it needs annually imports about 2 million tonnes of primary aluminum widely used in products ranging from computers, planes and electronics to the food sector. Stocks around 10% of total imports represented a healthy level.
Japanese shipments of aluminum products rose 8.5% in September from a year earlier to 170,443 tonnes the 10th consecutive month of year-on-year growth, helped by an unusually hot summer that boosted demand for cans used for drinks as well as use in cars which also remained strong.
Aluminum stocks held at the ports marked 10 year high of 374,600 tonnes at the end of February 2009, then hit 169,900 tonnes at the end of September 2009, their lowest since Marubeni began keeping records about 14 years ago.
Following are details of Japanese aluminum stocks including MoM and YoY comparisons:
| Yokohama | Nagoya | Osaka | Total | |
| 31 Oct | 112,100 | 100,700 | 13,000 | 225,800 |
| 30 Sep | 114,200 | 104,200 | 12,000 | 230,400 |
| 31 Aug | 121,200 | 101,900 | 13,000 | 236,100 |
| 31 Jul | 105,400 | 89,800 | 13,000 | 208,200 |
| End Oct 2009 | 81,600 | 76,600 | 13,000 | 171,200 |
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