Tag: Supply

Commercial participation in LME aluminum declined over the past year even as prices increased, inventories tightened and financial market activity expanded.

Rio Tinto has started commissioning its AP60 expansion at Arvida, adding 160,000 metric tons of annual primary aluminum capacity while replacing older production assets.

Trade data shows Chinese beverage can sheet imports more than doubled from January through most of May despite tariffs, higher conversion fees, expanding domestic capacity and a weaker US dollar.

The International Aluminium Institute's April figures showed Gulf production losses and the Mozal shutdown outweight modest gains from Europe, China and North America.

AMU's May aluminum market survey showed lengthier rolled product lead times coupled with shrinking extrusion and primary booking windows, though inventory building and forward demand sentiment remained cautious.

CRU’s Ross Strachan and Paul Williams outline at the CRU World Aluminium Summit 2026 how GCC disruptions are tightening billet, slab and foundry alloy supply more sharply than primary aluminum availability, increasing pressure across downstream manufacturing markets.

The LME price for aluminum spiked at the start of the US/Israel war on Iran and has lately hovered around $3,400-$3,600 per ton, not yet breaching $4,000.

Ball reported modest shipment growth and higher earnings, with North American volumes constrained by limited capacity and strong contract coverage.

Ford and GM's results show earnings supported by tariff timing and mix, while volumes, inventory, and cash flow point to a constrained supply and uneven demand.

Century Aluminum restarted a potline at its Iceland smelter after an outage, though the move is unlikely to directly affect North American supply.