TOKYO, March 4 (Reuters) - Global aluminium producers have
offered Japanese buyers premiums of $149-$165 per tonne for
April-June primary metal shipments, up 15%-27% from the current
quarter, three sources directly involved in quarterly pricing
talks said on Thursday.
    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 January-March quarter, Japanese buyers agreed to pay
a premium of $130 per tonne  PREM-ALUM-JP , up 48% from the
prior quarter.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2J407A

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom Hogue)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4563-2761;))