Offers for China's domestic spot aluminum alloy ADC12 remained generally steady Tuesday, while the physical demand stayed healthy after the pickup seen the previous week, industry sources said.
Domestic offers were heard around Yuan 16,000/mt ($2,619/mt) ex-works, unchanged from last week.
Platts kept its weekly China domestic ADC12 prices steady at Yuan 15,800-16,100/mt ex-works Tuesday, unchanged from the previous Tuesday.
"The domestic demand is still doing fine due to the end-users' rush to stock up for year-end requirements. I expect demand to pick up even more in November," said an east China-based producer, who indicated offers at Yuan 15,800-16,000/mt, unchanged from last week.
An east China-based diecaster said: "Domestic offers have remained steady. We have bought a small lot around Yuan 16,000/mt as we have orders. However, we will not stock up as we are a small producer. We only buy when we have sales orders. We don't want our funds to be tied down by the inventories."
Another east China-based said that the previous flood due to a typhoon had affected Zhejiang's ADC12 production, thereby affecting the overall supply in the market.
"Supply from the Zhejiang province has dropped. This, however, has helped to lift demand from other provinces," he added.
Typhoon Fitow has affected 4.56 million people in east China's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on October 7, the official Xinhua news agency reported on October 8.
The 23rd typhoon to hit China this year landed in Shacheng Township of Fuding City on October 7 at 1:15 am local time (1715 GMT, Sunday), packing winds up to 151 km/hour.
China's spot aluminum ingot price was heard around Yuan 14,520/mt, up from Yuan 14,470/mt Monday.
The November aluminum futures contract was Yuan 14,505/mt on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, up from Yuan 14,470/mt Monday.
Meanwhile, Japan's spot import trade of ADC12 aluminum alloy continued to be lackluster as the yen remained weak against the dollar, market sources said.
Platts held the export Chinese ADC12 assessment at $2,120-2,130/mt FOB China Tuesday, unchanged from the previous week.
"There's no change in the offers from Chinese suppliers from last week. Despite the slight increase on LME aluminum ingot prices, the ADC12 offers are still at $2,130-2,140/mt CFR Japan this week. Japanese domestic demand had remained steady at the moment," said a Japanese trader.
An east China-based producer, who heard market indications at $2,140-2,150/mt CFR Japan , said: "Japanese buyers are keeping a close watch over the dollar/yen exchange rate. The yen has been very weak recently."
"A year ago, it was $1 to Yen 80-100. The range was wide. Now, $1 is about Yen 90-100. The range is narrow and yen has remained weak," the Japanese trader added.
Another east China-based producer, who was offering at $2,150-2,160/mt CFR Japan, said he had no inquiries from Japan for the week.
"Given the weak yen, Japanese buyers are buying as much as possible from the domestic market. Some of these Japanese domestic ADC12 producers are operating at full capacity. Despite that, the Japanese domestic supply is not enough and they need to import. Probably, they would just buy more on days when the exchange rate is to their advantage," this second eastern Chinese producer added.
Chinese sources said imported zorba-grade of aluminum scrap had remained steady around $1,700/mt CIF amid limited supply, thereby limiting the possibility of lowering Chinese ADC12 export offers.
On Monday the LME official cash price for aluminum was $1,838.50-1,839/mt, up from $1,807-1,807.50/mt last Monday.
