Japan's aluminium import from the GCC countries grew by 8.6% to USD 667.7 million in 2012 from USD 614.8 million in 2011. UAE was Japan's top supplier of aluminium among the GCC countries and the 4th largest supplier of Japan in the world, exporting aluminium worth USD 552.5 million in 2012.

Aluminium import from Qatar the second largest supplier of aluminium to Japan among the GCC countries increased 65.5% to USD 76.3 million in 2012. Import of aluminium from Bahrain, once a leading supplier to Japan, was down by 7.4% to USD 17.2 million in 2012 from USD 18.6 million in 2011. Japan's aluminium import from Bahrain was worth USD 69.5 million in 2010 and USD 91.3 million in 2008. The share of GCC as a whole in Japan's aluminium imports from the world over was 8.1% in 2012 in the place of 6.7% in 2011.

Japan imported a total of 3.09 million tonnes of aluminium from the world over, at a cost of USD 8.3 billion in 2012 compared to 3.1 million tonnes at USD 9.2 billion in 2011. The decline in the import value was attributed to a 10.9% decline in the average price of aluminium in 2012 compared to the average price in the previous year. Average price was down to USD 2.68 per kilogram in 2012 from USD 3.01 per kilogram in 2011. China was the top supplier of aluminium to Japan in 2012 followed by Russia, Australia, UAE, Brazil, New Zealand, USA, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.