Tag: Canada

Reviving primary aluminum production in the US will need to go hand in hand with revamping domestic energy policy

The heads of the Canadian and US aluminum trade associations are calling on leaders to cool off and return to tariff negotiations.

Despite our concern that last weekend's doomed US-Canada trade talks would unsettle sentiment, most markets shrugged off the impasse and instead held up fairly well.

And there certainly was no shortage of things to talk about. Tariffs, geopolitics, domestic production trends, data center construction, and scrap availability were just some of the topics getting the spotlight.

Canadian aluminum exports to the US have continued to drop since the tariff rate increased to 25% in March 2025, with a growing share shipping off to Europe and Mexico. The tariff rate has since spiked to 50%.

The breakdown in the US-Canada talks underscores one of the least talked about problems with tariffs. Imposing them is relatively easy (provided they are not overturned by the courts). But when it comes to removing them? A number of industries have grown accustomed to the protection tariffs afford. They will fight tooth and nail to keep them in place. Politicians usually buckle under this backlash, and we suspect this is what happened here.

The tentative trade pact would lower tariffs on some steel and aluminum products from 50% to 25%.

Commerce issued preliminary antidumping duty determinations on Mexican and Canadian van-type trailer imports, with Mexico receiving higher preliminary margins.

We have seen aluminum correlate quite well with oil prices since the Iran war started. But there has been a noticeable disconnect between the two over the past few weeks.

Matalco recorded its highest quarterly recycled aluminum production since the Canton closure began, while Rio Tinto's primary output held nearly steady and US shipments decreased.