Offers for China's domestic spot aluminum alloy ADC12 slipped, affected mainly by weaker aluminum ingot prices, while the demand remained steady, seeing no significant change from the previous week, industry sources said.
Domestic offers for ADC12 were mostly at Yuan 15,700-15,800/mt ($2,577-2,593/mt) ex-works, though a buyer source claimed to have heard indications around Yuan 15,400/mt but he did not buy.
However, sources generally agreed that offers had dropped by about Yuan 100/mt week on week.
Platts assessed its weekly China domestic ADC12 price at Yuan 15,600-15,800/mt ex-works Tuesday, down from Yuan 15,800-15,900/mt last week.
"Domestic offers have dropped by Yuan 50-100/mt from last week due to weaker primary aluminum ingot prices, while the demand has remained steady," said a south China-based producer, who heard offers at Yuan 15,700-15,800/mt.
An east China-based diecaster, who has lowered his offers by Yuan 100/mt week on week to Yuan 15,700-15,800/mt, said: "Most end-users are not in the spot market to buy as they would have procured their requirements."
Sources agreed that most end-users would be busy fulfilling their orders, working till just before the Lunar New Year at end-January 2014.
Chinese domestic spot aluminum ingot price was around Yuan 14,240/mt Tuesday, down from Yuan 14,330/mt a week ago.
The December aluminum futures contract stood at Yuan 14,180/mt on the Shanghai Futures Exchange Tuesday, down from Yuan 14,270/mt last week.
In Japan, the spot import trade has thinned as the yen weakened to Yen 103.30 to the US dollar, compared to Yen 101.50 a week ago, raising Japanese import costs by 2%.
Platts lowered the ADC12 export assessment to $2,110-2,120/mt FOB China Tuesday from $2,110-2,130/mt last week.
Some Chinese producers have cut offers by $5-10/mt from last week and there was an offer as low as $2,125/mt CFR Japan, December loading. Other Chinese producers offered $2,135-2,140/mt CFR Japan, Japanese traders said.
There was no deal reported.
"I have no inquiries from Japan due to the weak yen. I am keeping my offers at $2,140/mt, which is almost at the breakeven point. However, I heard some Chinese sellers are cutting their offers by $5-10/mt," said an east China-based producer.
One Japanese consumer also cited the low London Metal Exchange high-grade aluminum prices for expecting ADC12 alloy offers to fall further.
"Aluminum scrap offers have also softened due to weak LME prices. However, scrap supplies remained tight, keeping import offers steady at $1,650-1,700/mt CIF China," the eastern Chinese producer added.
Japan's January-March alloy demand is expected to increase, however, as some Japanese automakers plan to raise output ahead of the consumption tax hike in April, sources said.
Toyota Motor has closed a buy tender Monday for around 10,000 mt/month of molten aluminum alloy and secondary ingot combined. Daihatsu Motor will close Wednesday a buy tender for 500-1,000 mt in total for January-March delivery.
On Monday, the official LME cash price for aluminum was $1,699-1,669.50/mt, down from $1,733-1,734/mt last week.
