By Jae Hur
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Aluminum stockpiles in Japan, Asia’s largest importer, surged to the highest in more than a decade in January as a deepening recession slashed demand for the metal used in homes and cars.
Inventories in Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka ports jumped 15 percent to 363,200 metric tons as of Jan. 31 from 316,300 tons a month earlier, Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. said today. That’s the highest since September 1998, when they reached 401,000 tons, said Marubeni, Japan’s top importer of the light metal.
Stockpiles increased after Japan’s economy shrank at an annual 12.7 percent pace last quarter, the most since the 1974 oil shock, amid an unprecedented collapse in exports and production. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker, will slash domestic production 54 percent in the current quarter as demand plunges in the U.S. and Japan.
“We may see a steeper decline in aluminum shipments for January than we saw in December,” Koji Iida, a spokesman for the Japan Aluminium Association, said by phone. “It’s worse not only for domestic demand but also for exports because of the surging yen.”
Japan’s shipments of rolled aluminum products tumbled 22 percent in December, the biggest drop since April 1981, as demand slumped because of accelerated production cuts by carmakers and machinery companies. Shipments fell to 142,976 tons from 182,566 tons a year earlier, the Japan Aluminium Association said Jan. 28. It was the third straight monthly decline.
The yen advanced 18 percent against the dollar in the past year and traded at 91.57 to the dollar at 11:50 a.m. in Tokyo.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Singapore at jhur1@bloomberg.net
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