Falling spot premiums, slow demand and ample supply have cast a bearish pall over the Asian aluminium market this year and market participants told Fastmarkets they believe this will be the case for 2020 too.
The primary consumers of aluminium in Asia are Japan and Korea, with the former having annual demand of up to 1.8 million tonnes, and Korea up to 1 million tonnes.But the aluminium market in Japan seems to have shrunk in terms of demand this year, according to market participants.Japan's imports of primary aluminium declined by 14% year-on-year to around 931,000 tonnes during January-August this year, according to the Japanese Aluminium Association.Meanwhile, aluminium imports slumped by 2% year-on-year to 1.5 million tonnes in 2018-19."The aluminium market this year in Japan has grown negatively, due to the fall in exports from the major automobile sector, and perhaps a global demand for cars has slumped," a Singapore-based trader said.Other market participants, both Japan-based and Singapore-based traders, attributed the overall tumble in automobiles to the US-China trade fallout and Japan-Korea trade war."Since the trade war started, end consumer demand for primary aluminium became weak...