Plight of the US aluminium industry continues, and so are the protests

The misearbly distressed US aluminium industry is fighting for survival as the price of aluminium plumbs depths not seen since 2009. Century Aluminium, a company owned by the Glencore Group, that suffered huge losses in the recently ended quarter, is fighting back.

A lobby group funded by Century Aluminum has started a petition and online campaign urging the US government to take action against China, which it blames for subsidising lossmaking domestic producers of the metal and driving down prices.

The US could stop producing aluminium by next year if prices continue to decline, according to the analysts of a US based consultancy firm. That would mean more job losses and making the country completely reliant on imports of the metal that is consumed in vast quantities by its aerospace, military and automotive industries.

“The entire aluminium industry in the US is at stake with these prices,” the firm said. It calculates that all smelters in the US are currently losing money at today’s prices.

Alcoa, the largest US producer of the lightweight metal, used in the manufacture of everything from cars to soft drinks cans, announced this week that it will close three smelters, leaving it with just one operational facility in the country.

Aluminium has collapsed 18 per cent this year to $1,489 a tonne due to excess supply in China spilling into the global market. China’s smelters are among the largest in the world and it produces about half of the world’s supply of the metal, 13 times more than the US. Its newest plants also benefited from cheaper coal in resource-rich western Xinjiang province.