Heavy week for a light metal

Taber Extrusions broke ground on their planned facility expansion in Russellville, Arkansas. The expansion includes a 10,000ton press and the aerospace market will be the end sector its production is intended to serve. The plan was announced around nine months ago and is slated for completion in 2026. What it could mean: Expanded manufacturing capabilities could lead to a greater volume of 2000 and 7000 series supply/demand, possibly in the form of mixed turnings and solids, in a region (the South) where aerospace generated scrap has become increasingly prevalent.

Stellantis announced a wave of layoffs and temporary shutdowns this week that included their Canadian Windsor Assembly plant, their Mexican Toluca Assembly plant, as well as five U.S. plants: Warren Stamping (Warren, MI), Sterling Stamping (Sterling Heights, MI), and Indiana Transmission, Kokomo Transmission, and Kokomo Casting (Kokomo, IN). What it could mean: Some scrap buyers in the Midwest with industrial accounts tied to these facilities could see weaker inflows of the 5XXX and 6XXX series alloys and old cast scrap.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SBIC) sold its entire stake of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba) to Saudi Arabia-based Ma’aden, granting Ma’aden full ownership. What it could mean: Bahrain is the third largest exporter of billet to the U.S., while Saudi Arabia exported none whatsoever in 2024 (down from a little more than 2,000mt in 2023) but has extensive market share in beverage packaging end sectors and the 5XXX series alloys in the US.

Terminal markets: Off warrant, on watch

The three-month London Metal Exchange (LME) contract started the week hitting an 8-month low of $2,320/mt during an intraday trading session on Monday, fluctuated through the middle of the week on tariff spates, and settled back around $2,400/mt by Friday.

Country of Origin data released this week by the LME showed Russian-origin metal comprised around 88% of open tonnages available in the exchange’s network at the end of March. Tangentially, 60% of off-warrant stocks were concentrated at the Port Klang, Malaysia port according to the most recently available data ending April 8^th.

Tariff encore: New cast, same scripts

This week, on Wednesday in particular, trade tensions escalated.

Canada imposed a 25% tariff on U.S.-assembled vehicles that don’t comply with the provisions laid out by the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement (or CUSMA, as they refer to it north of the border).

Simultaneously, the European Union approved retaliatory tariffs on $23B worth of US goods, in response to US steel and aluminum duties, set to take effect on July 4. However, the EU suspended these tariffs following the announcement of a 90-day halt on “reciprocal tariffs”.

Which leads us to the tariff halt – Wednesday evening Trump announced a 90-day tariff halt on reciprocal tariffs. That does not include the baseline 10% tariff on all imported goods, the steel and aluminum 232 duties, the 25% tariff on imported vehicles (and potentially its auto parts counterpart in a couple of weeks), or anything levied on China.

China and the U.S. traded barbs, ratcheting up tariff rates almost in sync with the sunrise in each other’s time zones – a tit-for-tat tariff tug-of-war that played out in real time. The final tally: U.S. 145% tariffs on China, China 125% tariffs on the U.S.

Mark your calendars