Market and product

TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) - Aluminium stocks held at threemajor Japanese ports rose 7.5 percent to 204,800 tonnes in May,trading house Marubeni Corp (8002.T: Quote) said, climbing for the firsttime in three months and hitting levels not seen since January.

Aluminium stocks rose 14,300 tonnes from a month earlier butfell 15.8 percent from a year earlier. The year-on-year dropnarrowed from a 35.6 percent slump in April.

Marubeni collects data from the key ports of Yokohama, Nagoyaand Osaka.

"Stocks rose slightly but I don't expect them to gain muchfrom here as demand is stable, thereby keeping stocks at anappropriate level," an official at Marubeni said.

"An increase in shipments from Australia, South Africa andRussia contributed to the rise in end-May aluminium stocks," theofficial said.

Japan, which must buy nearly all the metal it needs, importsabout 2 million tonnes of primary aluminium every year. Industrysources said stocks amounting to around 10 percent of imports isconsidered appropriate and not in excess.

Japan's shipments of the metal have been recovering from aslump that set in after the global economic crisis in late 2008and led automakers and other manufacturers to slash output andcut demand for the metal, which is used widely in productsranging from computers, planes and electronics to the foodsector.

Japanese shipments of aluminium products rose 28.7 percent inApril from a year earlier, partly thanks to robust demand inChina and Southeast Asia. [ID:nTOE64O06H]

Reflecting the recovery, some deals for term premiums forprimary aluminium shipments to Japan for July-September wereagreed at $120-$122 per tonne, down about 2 percent from thesecond quarter. [ID:nTOE658079]

Stocks held at the ports marked a 10-year high at the end ofFebruary 2009 but then started falling and hit 169,900 tonnes atthe end of September 2009, their lowest since Marubeni begankeeping records about 14 years ago.

Following are details of Japanese aluminium stocks, includingmonth-on-month and year-on-year comparisons (in tonnes):

Yokohama Nagoya Osaka TotalMay 31 96,400 95,400 13,000 204,800Apr 30 89,800 87,700 13,000 190,500Mar 31 92,300 87,000 13,500 192,800Feb 28 98,700 88,500 13,500 200,700End-May 2009 122,000 107,800 13,500 243,300

(Source: Reuters, Reporting by Chikako Mogi)