Tag: Tariffs

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.

Next week, AMU will kick off its first Aluminum Summit in Atlanta.

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

Outside of crude, most other commodity markets finished higher. In the base metals group, copper, zinc, and aluminum each added between 2% to 3%.

The $50-million project is expected to increase domestic primary production by about 10%. The plant had been operating at about 75% of its 230,000-metric-ton-per-year nameplate capacity.

Markets remain transfixed on developments in the Middle East