Platts Japanese aluminum import premiums reflect the premiums charged over the London Metal Exchange cash contracts for standard ingot imported into Japan.

The quarterly premiums are negotiated between Japanese buyers and overseas suppliers before the start of every quarter. The Platts assessment reflects the negotiation results.

The assessment is for the most common P1020/P1020A ingot, sows and T-bars imported into Japan. Its chemical specification is minimum 99.7% aluminum, maximum 0.2% silicon, maximum 0.1% iron, maximum 0.03% zinc, maximum 0.04% gallium, and maximum 0.03% vanadium.

The quarterly assessment reflects quarterly import transactions for volumes greater than 500 mt/month.

The basis of the quarterly deals is CIF Japanese main ports of Yokohama, Nagoya or Osaka. Deals into basis CIF Fushiki Toyama and other minor ports can be normalized where appropriate based on prevailing port and other shipping conditions.
Timing follows calendar year. First quarter is January-March, rather than April-June as in the Japanese financial year.

Q1 premium assessment is for loading in January-March, rather than expected delivery time into Japan, which is one to three months after loading.

Platts reflects Q1 premiums agreed 30-days before the given quarter. The assessment does not take into account Q1 premiums agreed six-months or one-year before, for example.

Payment term is specified to be cash-against-documents, the most uniform payment term for Japanese aluminum imports.

The Platts Japanese import premium assessments are available in these services.