The Secondary Aluminum Coalition for America (SACA) is pushing secondary aluminium to the centre of US supply-chain strategy, arguing that recycling-based production can expand domestic aluminium capacity faster and more efficiently than new primary smelters. In this AL Circle interview, SACA outlines its policy priorities, scrap-retention challenges, defence applications and vision for a more resilient US aluminium supply base.
The Secondary Aluminum Coalition for America (SACA) represents companies across the US secondary aluminium supply chain, from scrap collectors and traders to remelt facilities, extruders, and fabricators. Its members operate in 17 states and account for the majority of US aluminium industry employment. SACA advocates for policies that strengthen domestic aluminium supply and expand American production capacity.
AL Circle: What are the coalition's three immediate policy priorities for strengthening US secondary aluminium?
SACA: SACA is focused on ensuring that policymakers understand that secondary production is the fastest and most capital efficient way to dramatically increase America’s domestic aluminium supply. So far, we've held active conversations with the White House, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the Department of Energy, the International Trade Administration, and bipartisan members of Congress across multiple states.
Secondary production is inherently diversified, which strengthens local supply chains and ensures that production is not concentrated in one plant. Oftentimes, aluminium price shocks can be traced back to a problem that takes a single facility offline, by investing in secondary production, the government is also supporting its objectives to improve supply chain resilience. So far, we've been encouraged by the bipartisan recognition we have received.
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AL Circle: SACA's founding argument is that secondary aluminium can add capacity faster and more cheaply than new primary smelting. How quickly could secondary aluminium capacity help close the US aluminium supply gap compared with new primary smelters?
SACA: Secondary aluminium facilities can come online in 18-24 months. This is in contrast to new primary production, which can take more than five years to bring online. That speed difference is a key differentiator for secondary aluminium.
Secondary producers not only use around 95 per cent less energy than primary alternatives, but its fuel source is primarily natural gas, instead of electricity. These two factors mean that secondary facilities do not compete with a growing list of demands for electrical power. SACA is also ensuring policymakers understand the size of the American secondary industry. In the United States, 97.5 per cent of aluminium-related employment is found in the secondary supply chain. Taken together, the speed, energy efficiency, and employment base make secondary aluminium the most practical lever for closing the supply gap in the near term.
AL Circle: In your opinion, what would need to change for the US to stop exporting large volumes of aluminium scrap while simultaneously worrying about domestic aluminium supply?
SACA: Too much scrap currently leaves the country because it lacks the domestic infrastructure to sort and prepare the material for US furnaces. Much of it leaves the country as low-grade, labor-intensive material, gets sorted and upgraded overseas, and comes back as finished metal we could have made here. Building the collection, sortation, and furnace capacity here in the United States is the fix to this problem.
Price plays a role too: it's frequently cheaper to ship low-grade mixed scrap for processing overseas than to move it across the country, given the embedded tariff cost baked into domestic scrap pricing and the relative shortage of sorting infrastructure. Building out that domestic capacity and closing the price disparity would give US collectors a genuine economic incentive to keep this critical material at home.
AL Circle: SACA has emphasised secondary aluminium's role in national defence and critical supply chains. Where is reliance on exported scrap posing the sharpest near-term risk?
SACA: The clearest near-term risk is the scale of the unfilled supply gap. The US government recognises this, which is why it has designated aluminium as a critical mineral and focused on developing new production capacity. The US imports roughly 3.7 million tonnes of unwrought aluminium annually, and even if new primary smelters come online, they would close only about 20 per cent of that gap.
Many SACA member companies already produce 5xxx-series alloys that meet military-grade specifications, including weldable armor plate, so secondary aluminium is already part of the defence supply chain. With the types of grants, loans and other support that primary producers have received, secondary producers could help close the remaining gap quickly, reliably and affordably
AL Circle: Looking 12 months out, what does success look like for SACA — a tariff-code change, an export threshold, a capacity-investment commitment, or something else?
SACA: In 12 months, success means Washington and the industry both understand what secondary already knows: it’s the fastest, most cost-efficient way to close the US aluminium supply gap. With the right investment conditions, that understanding translates into real capacity.
Longer term, we’ll keep advocating for policies that grow domestic supply and lower costs for our members and their customers. Success looks like more scrap processed at home, more capacity online, and secondary established as a core pillar of domestic aluminium – right alongside primary, reducing import reliance and building a more resilience supply base for American manufacturers.
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