US' declining bauxite imports in 2025: A critical overview
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The United States has long been a net importer of bauxite, owing to the small domestic reserves located in Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. This trend has not changed much except the numbers going up or down in 2025. Jamaica and Turkey, the only two primary exporters of bauxite to the US, have remained firm, albeit the amount dropped year-on-year, leading to the decline in the United States’ total bauxite imports.
Factors driving the decline in the US bauxite imports
The erosion of alumina refining capacity in the domestic market from 5 million tonnes in 2000 to nearly 600,000 tonnes today has practically reduced the demand for bauxite in the United States. At present, only one refinery - Atlantic Alumina’s Gramercy plant in Louisiana is running but at its one-third capacity, producing around 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes annually. Moreover, the United States’ constant shift towards secondary aluminium, with scrap recovery reaching 3.62 million tonnes by the end of 2025, has altered the requirement of aluminium input from bauxite to scrap.
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