Category: Supply Chain Dynamics

AMU takes a closer look at obscure but telling markets - corrugated boxes, cement, and coatings - for early clues on where aluminum demand may really be headed in 2025.

Indonesia is grabbling a lot of attention these days, thanks to ambitious plans by Chinese investors to bet big on aluminum smelting. This is not the first time that Indonesia has captured the attention of the aluminum industry.

Freight data - especially truck movements - remains flat year over year, underscoring its role as a leading indicator of commodity demand and an early signal for aluminum's dependence on final-mile delivery.

September's survey shows stability, but a closer look reveals diverging conditions: scrap recyclers facing oversupply, semi-fabricators holding ground, and softer price expectations on Midwest premiums and UBCs.

Arconic's Davenport expansion has doubled its high-purity aluminum capacity, a development that fills part of the void left by Century's idled Hawesville smelter and an opaque import market.

The long-delayed Concord facility marks Ball's return to the Carolinas and highlights a broader shift in beverage can demand, with energy drinks and specialty drinks driving growth as supply chains and consumer preferences evolve in tandem.

As billet upcharges mount, scrap spreads stay wide, and talk of an export ban rattles recyclers, the aluminum industry heads into 2026 facing some of the toughest cost and supply negotiations yet.

Broadly speaking, the OECD is more positive on growth than what one might have thought.

Novelis' Oswego mill fire has sidelined the largest producer of automotive body and structural sheet in North America, disrupting a closed-loop scrap system and removing over half of regional BIW/closures sheet supply, with limited options for domestic backfill and costly import alternatives.

Meanwhile, the nation’s largest rail union said they supported the tie-up between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern once Union Pacific agreed to secure union jobs.