TOKYO, May 30 (Reuters) - A major aluminium producer has offered Japanese buyers a premium of $110 per tonne for July-September primary metal shipments, down 4-6 percent from the previous quarter, three sources directly involved in pricing talks said on Monday.
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 CMAL0 set the benchmark for the region.
For the April-June quarter, Japanese buyers agreed to pay producers a premium of $115-$117 per tonne PREM-ALUM-JP , up about 5-6 percent from the prior quarter, due to lower local inventories. latest quarterly pricing negotiations began late last week between Japanese buyers and miners including Rio Tinto Ltd RIO.AX RIO.L , Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) AA.N and South32 Ltd S32.AX , and are expected to continue in June.