Short supply of metal is affecting U.S. aluminum extruders, says AEC

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC), Wauconda, Ill., says that its members have seen unprecedented disruption to the primary aluminum supply chain. After the Trump administration announced in March it would impose 10 percent tariffs on all primary aluminum products imported into the U.S., significant shifts in pricing and supply began to take hold across the industry. According to AEC, extruders began to find ways to source metal not covered by these orders, and the London Metal Exchange and Midwest Premium both seemed to swing widely each week as the industry watched the orders take hold of the market.

When sanctions against the Russian oligarchy were announced, the second-largest supplier of primary aluminum was forced to stop deliveries into the U.S. market. Without any advanced notice, without any time to re-establish new suppliers, and without any chance to properly react, extruders across the U.S. began running out of aluminum raw material, and no alternatives to obtain any, AEC states.

Work stoppages have now been reported across the country, says the council, and some extruders have enough aluminum raw material to run only for a few more weeks. This all comes as the industry enters its busiest time of the year with the market having set bookings records in the first quarter.

Some extrusion buyers now are going overseas to find product they can import to the detriment of the domestic industry—the opposite result of what the administration had intended.

“We ask the administration to exclude from duties and sanctions all countries from which the domestic extrusion industry can import primary aluminum until there is a guarantee of a solid domestic supply option,” said AEC in a press release. “Now, more than ever, the industry needs surety of supply. Without any solution, the impact to the aluminum extrusion industry is too devastating to comprehend.”