ASUKA ALUMINIUM NEWS No.659 MAY 2016
JARA estimates 3.0% growth in fiscal 2016
The Japan Aluminum Alloy Refiners Association held a board of directors in March25 in Osaka, where the presumption of secondary aluminum alloy demand in fiscal
2015, started in April 2015 and ended in March 2016, and its prediction in fiscal 2016,
starts in April 2016 and ends in March 2017, were approved and revealed subsequetly.
According to the announcement, the Japanese economy showed a slow rebound infiscal 2015 supported by the government’s economic policies, so called “drastic easy
monetary policy”,” flexible policies for public finance” and “measures to expand privateinvestments”.
However contrarily, China and other emerging countries have been hit by a slowdown of economy, which brought us some weak conditions - reduction of export,
personal consumption and private investments.
Under these economic circumstances, the reaction of consumption tax increase wasput off, and the production of automobile decreased from the previous fiscal year, andthe major demand, cast and diecast, shrunk. Remarkably, can for coffee increased
favorably and it pushed up the demand of sheet.
After all, the total demand in fiscal 2015 decreased 2.3 per cent from the previous
period to 1,594,200 ton. Regarding the demand in fiscal 2016, the association predicts
that it increases 3.0 per cent year on year to 1,642,200 ton, and the associationcomments as follows.
(1) The major demand for cast and diecast will increase. The main users, autoproducers, have confident outlooks in fiscal 2016.
And furthermore, their parts export for knock-down will be pretty active successively.
(2) The good demand for sheet will continue from now on. The market of canned
coffee will expand more.
The table on page one shows the prediction of secondary aluminum alloy demand, on
which 26 means fiscal 2014, 27 means fiscal 2015 and 28 means fiscal 2016. Top line
shows cast, second diecast, third sheet and extrusion, fourth steel and others andbottom total. The right side figures show the comparison with the previous periods.
The tonnage includes the consumption of imported ingot. Unit is ton.
Tea leaves picking opens
There are many green tea farms and processors in the Nishio area where newlybudded leaves are picked and processed for green tea every May. Nishio-tea is noted
for its excellent quality. Traditionally, the fresh green tea is esteemed because of its
nice taste and goodness for health,
Just before the picking season, as the photo on page four shows, some girls
wearing traditional costume performed a classic picking show in early May.
Thanks to the best weather condition, it is said that this year’s Nishio-tea has thehighest quality and taste.

Total demand of aluminum products in 2015
The Japan Aluminum Association recently revealed the total demand of aluminum products in calendar year 2015. According to this announcement, the total
domestic demand in calendar year 2015 dwindled 1.3 per cent to 3,804,921 ton, which
was the first decline in past four years.
But the export demand rose 12.0 per cent to 259,057 ton, and the total demand
went down 0.5 per cent to 4,063,978 ton, which could barely keep 4 million ton level
during two years successively.
The itemized domestic demand is showed on page two table. Notes for the table,from left demand in calendar year 2015 and component ratio, demand in calendar
year 2015, component ratio and comparison with the previous year.
From top, (1) food (2)metal products (3)machine (4)construction (5)electricpower(6)electric appliance(7)transportation(8)chemistry(9)others(10)domestic total (11)export (12)grand total
Rebound of metallic silicon and magnesium
It is remarked that the market prices of metallic silicon and magnesium reboundrecently. Both metals are important main additive metals for aluminum alloys. Japan
imports metallic silicon of 190,000 ton yearly, in which 180,000 ton is imported fromChina. In the same way, the Japanese demand of magnesium is 40,000 ton yearly, allwhich is Chinese made.
The market prices of both metals have gone down since 2014 under overproduction by the excessive capacity. However recently, it is reported that theiroperation rate is 30 ~ 40 per cent only against below cost.
Today, the metal men in the world pay attention to the outcome in China, both themarket’s future of two metals and their huge excessive production capacity
The chart on page two is market prices of metallic silicon and magnesium，US$/ton. Upper line is magnesium, and lower line is metallic silicon.
The 72nd. World Foundry Congress is held in Nagoya“The World Foundry Congress 2016” is going to be held on May 21 ~ 25 at the Port
Messe Nagoya in Kinjoh Quay Nagoya. The congress is held every two years and thisis 72nd. congress.
It aims to develop the foundry engineering with researchers, engineers andfoundry men in one hall. The program is as follows.
May 21 [ registration, welcome party]
May 22 [opening ceremony, specialaddress]
May 23 [engineering lecture, dinner party]May 24 [engineeringlecture, closing ceremony and Foundry men’s Night]
May 25 [plant observation
bus tour]May 22 ~ 25 [exhibition]
The plant observation bus tours, concerned with aluminum cast and diecast only,
are as follows.
Tour #4 [Aichi Kikai, Matsuzaka City & Iga City] Tour #5 [Mino Ind. & Daido,
Nakatsugawa City] Tour#6 [Aisin & Denso, Nishio City] Tour #7 [Ahresty &Yamaha, Hamamatsu City]
Further information; wfc2016@convention.co.jp