SHANGHAI, Oct. 27 (SMM) -- According to China Customs, China’s exports of aluminum alloy ingot were 59,551 mt during September, up 21.57% YoY. YTD exports from January through September were 499,700 mt, up 27.04% YoY. Rapid growth of aluminum alloy ingot exports in September was attributed to rapidly rising Japanese demand.

SMM sources reprot that China exported 35,322 mt of aluminum alloy ingot to Japan in September, up 15.79% MoM and 56.04% YoY. As Japanese automobile and home appliance manufacturers have managed to operate at full capacity in order to make up 1H losses they suffered from the massive earthquake, they increased purchases of raw material in response in a bid to ensure sufficient raw material inventories. As a result, Japan’s imports of aluminum alloy ingot from China increased, and the proportion of aluminum alloy ingot exports to Japan in China’s total exports also grew from 50.57% in August, to 59.31% in September.

Except significantly improving Japanese demand, demand from other countries was relatively stable, with demand from some countries even weakening, especially from South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, since weakening demand for building up inventories and rising SHFE/LME aluminum price ratio caused imports of aluminum alloy ingot by these countries to fall in September. China’s total imports of aluminum alloy ingot in September generally remained flat with August level, and SMM believes there is little chance aluminum alloy ingot exports in October will fall sharply in view of robust overseas demand despite the Chinese National Day holiday factor.