USGS Mineral Industry Survey publishes Aluminum report for February 2016

According to the USGS Mineral Industry Survey report, only two companies reported domestic production of primary aluminum in February 2016 because of the recent smelter shutdowns. Consequently, production data were withheld to avoid the release of proprietary data. Total aluminum recovered from scrap in February 2016 was 296,000 metric tons, slightly more than that recovered in January and 4% more than that in February 2015.

On March 24, Alcoa Inc. shut down the last operating potline at the 269,000-metric-ton-per-year (t/yr) Warrick smelter in Evansville, IN. Alcoa had announced plans to close this smelter citing high power prices and low prices for aluminum. The rolling mill and adjacent power plant would continue to produce (Maltais, 2016). In April, Matalco Inc. started production of aluminum billet at its secondary smelter in Lordstown, OH. Matalco expected to produce about 40,000 t of billet from the smelter in its first year of production. The smelter would be ramped up to its full capacity of about 160,000t/yr in 2018.

The monthly average U.S. market price of primary aluminum ingot increased to $0.783 per pound (about $1,566 per ton) in February from $0.764 per pound in January (about $1,528 per ton). However, the monthly average price decreased to $0.773 per pound in March (about $1,546 per ton). Inventories of primary aluminum in London Metal Exchange Ltd. approved warehouses in the United States continued their downward trend, decreasing to 384,000t at the end of February and 337,000t at the end of March, their lowest level since December 2007.