Platts excludes Russian-origin aluminum from CIF Japan quarterly premium assessment

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has excluded Russian-origin material from its CIF Japan Quarterly Aluminum premium assessment (AAFGA00), effective Oct. 2, 2023.

Market feedback showed that an increasing number of market participants are restricting, or preemptively seeking to exclude Russian-origin aluminum, in their CIF Japan trading activity.

Recent feedback from the Q3 contract price settlements indicated that Russian-origin trades did not reflect the majority of concluded settlements and a repeatable value.

Imports of Russian-origin metal to Japan have fallen significantly this year, according to Japanese trade statistics. Russian-origin aluminum imports to Japan over January-August fell 65% year on year to 105,313 mt, making up 7.5% of Japan's total aluminum imports, compared with a 17.3% share in January-August 2022.

The following assessments are affected:

Platts has observed that quarterly contract settlements in 2023 have been concluded around one to two months after the start of negotiations, delaying price settlements beyond the first month of the delivery quarter. Platts will continue to monitor developments after the specification change.

Platts first proposed to exclude Russian-origin cargoes from the quarterly premium assessments on June 28 and the subscriber note can be found at Platts proposes to exclude Russian-origin aluminum from CIF Japan quarterly premium assessment.

On Sept. 4, Platts communicated planned changes based on further market feedback received after the initial proposal. The relevant note can be found at: Platts to exclude Russian-origin aluminum from CIF Japan quarterly premium assessment.

Following a separate consultation process related to the CIF Japan spot market, Platts started excluding Russian-origin metal from the CIF Japan spot aluminum premium assessment from July 3.

Further details are available here: Platts excludes Russian-origin aluminum from CIF Japan spot premium assessment.

Market participants are invited to send all comments, feedback and questions to platts_mjp_moc@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.