
The Aluminum Association, in cooperation with the Aluminium Association of Canada, reported primary aluminium production in North America (U.S. and Canada) was at an annual rate of 3,683,641 tonnes during June 2018, declining 90,024 tpy (-2.4%) from the May 2018 rate of 3,773,664 tonnes.
Preliminary estimates indicate that aluminium demand in the United States and Canada (shipments by domestic producers plus imports) totalled an estimated 11,928 million pounds through May 2018, up 3.4 per cent over like-2017. Demand for semi-fabricated (mill) products totalled 8,532 million pounds, up 4.0 per cent.
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The U.S. continued to import its crude, semi-finished aluminium and scrap from its key supplying countries to accommodate the domestic consumption. The country imported 26,762 tonnes of aluminium scrap in May, accounting for about 8% of the total import. For the period of January to May 2018, 109,769 tonnes of scrap were imported by the U.S., about 7% of the total import. The scrap import volume for May remain flat from May 2017 but YTD volume drops 25% from the same period of 2017.

Including scrap, which accounted for roughly 56.3 per cent of reported aluminium exports in May, exports totalled 267,619 tonnes in May, up 7.2 per cent over a year ago. Excluding scrap, exports totalled 258 million pounds, essentially unchanged from last year. Exports of scrap increased 13.5 per cent year-over-year to 150,593 tonnes in May. For the period of January to May 2018, about 681,749 tonnes of scrap were exported by the U.S., about 54% of the total export. Aluminium scrap export has increased about 12% YTD in comparison to 2017.
Through the first five months of 2018, total imports were slightly down to 1.9 million tonnes, while exports were up 13.7 per cent to 1.3 million tonnes.
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