Aluminum Tariffs' Price Effects 'Unclear,' Congressional Research Service Says
An additional 10 percent tariff on primary aluminum may be responsible for a 3 percent cost increase for the metal, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, but the "price effect is still unclear." Members of Congress…
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asked if the tariffs would serve their stated purpose of increasing employment at primary aluminum smelters, and the CRS doesn't say much about that, just noting that Century Aluminum restarted a smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky, and Magnitude 7 Metals restarted limited production, while Alcoa, the largest domestic producer, has not added any capacity. The Oct. 9 report said the cost of electricity in the U.S., rather than competition from imports, is the most likely culprit for the decline in virgin aluminum smelting. Primary aluminum smelting produced 741,000 metric tons in 2017, down from 2.6 million metric tons 10 years earlier. Canada, which has cheap hydroelectric power in Quebec, accounts for half of U.S. imports of the metal.