TOKYO: The premiums that Japanese buyers pay for aluminium are projected to stay between $80 and $140 a tonne next year, with a gradual rise later in the year on the back of healthy global demand, Japanese trading house Marubeni said on Wednesday.
Japan is Asia's top aluminium importer and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price set the benchmark for the region.
"Japanese premiums will likely increase in the April-June quarter next year, possibly to around $100 a tonne, helped by seasonal demand," Hideya Kitamura, general manager at Marubeni's light metals section, told reporters on Wednesday.
"And they may further climb later in the year as the economies in the US, Europe and China are expected to stay firm," he said.
Marubeni, a major Japanese aluminium trader, predicted premiums that are now being negotiated between the country's buyers and global producers will settle at $85 to $95 per tonne for the January to March quarter, followed by $80 to $120 in April to June, and $80 to $140 in July to December in 2017.
Some big aluminium producers have offered a premium of $95-$110 per tonne to Japanese buyers for primary metal shipments in the January to March period, up 27 percent to 47 percent from the previous quarter, five sources involved in the pricing talks said last month.
Marubeni also forecast aluminium prices to gradually rise to $1,700 to $1,800 a tonne in the later half of 2017, driven by economic growth in China and the US as well as tighter supply in the US and Oceania.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price has risen 14 percent this year to above $1,700 a tonne.
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