Aluminium producers seek record high premiums from Japan buyers -sources

TOKYO, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 9 (Reuters) - Two top aluminium producers are asking Japanese buyers to pay record premiums of $435-$440 per tonne for January-March deliveries, up as much as 4.8 percent from the previous quarter, two sources involved in quarterly pricing talks said on Tuesday.

Japan is Asia's biggest importer of the metal and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price set the benchmark for the region.

For the October-December quarter, Japanese buyers mostly agreed to pay a record premium of $420 per tonne (PREM-ALUM-JP), up 3-5 percent from the prior quarter.

One of the producers is asking for $440 per tonne for deliveries between January and March, while the other producer is seeking $435, the sources said.

The latest quarterly pricing negotiations began earlier this month between Japanese buyers and miners including Rio Tinto Ltd (Xetra: 855018 - news) , BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) and Alcoa Inc (NYSE: AA - news) and may continue for weeks. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Himani Sarkar)