LONDON, Apr 29, 2010 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- Demand for aluminum fabricated products will remain flat in the second quarter of the year with no meaningful recovery yet seen, the Chief Executive of Kaiser Aluminum Corp. said late Wednesday.
"We anticipate demand in the second quarter 2010 for our products will be similar to the demand we saw in the first quarter," said Jack Hockema.
"Although we have not yet seen meaningful improvement in real demand, supply chain inventories appear to be reaching equilibrium and destocking appears to be moderating."
Kaiser supplies aluminum to the aerospace and defense, general engineering and automotive industries.
Hockema said the company was encouraged by solid order backlogs and recent announcements by large commercial airframe manufacturers regarding their plans to increase production in late 2010.
However, commercial airframe manufacturers are likely to continue working through surplus inventories built during prior production delays in the near-term, he added.
Kaiser has 10 U.S. fabrication facilities and one Canadian facility. The operations typically produce and ship more than 500 million pounds of aluminum products a year.
-By Andrea Hotter
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