TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Some Japanese aluminium buyers have agreed to pay producers a premium of $75 per tonne for shipments in the October-December quarter, reflecting softer spot premiums, two sources directly involved in the quarterly pricing talks said on Thursday.
The deal, which marks a 17 to 19 percent fall from the $90 to $93 per tonne premiums PREM-ALUM-JP in the previous quarter, is the second straight quarterly drop and the lowest in more than seven years.
Japan is Asia's biggest importer of aluminium 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.
The latest quarterly pricing negotiations began last week between Japanese buyers and global producers, including Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) AA.N , Rio Tinto RIO.L RIO.AX and South32 Ltd S32.AX , with initial offers ranging between $80 to $82 a tonne.