Japan's aluminium seaborne spot market has rebounded strongly after a quiet 2020 that was characterized by thin spot trading volumes and buyers asking to defer deliveries - and the benchmark premium could keep rising.
Activity has picked up dramatically in the second quarter of 2021, with constrained domestic supply propelling spot trades as high as $170 per tonne.
Last week, a spot deal was heard at $167 per tonne last week while a tender concluded at a premium of $170 per tonne.
The aluminium P1020A main Japanese ports (MJP) spot premium, cif Japan has more than doubled to $160-170 per tonne in Friday April 16's assessment from $65-75 per tonne a year ago.
The last time the premium was at this level was on April 30, 2018, at $160-195 per tonne. It peaked at an all-time high earlier that month at $180-200 per tonne, reflecting sanctions the United States had imposed on producer Rusal that elicited fears about tightness.
Market participants told Fastmarkets about an end-user in desperate need of material who air-freighted about 20 tonnes of aluminium ingots.
And according to many...