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The Trump administration plans to cut aluminium tariffs for companies investing in smelting plants as it pushes US defence companies to reduce their reliance on foreign adversaries.
Companies committed to building, expanding or refurbishing American smelting facilities would qualify for incentives amounting to half of the current 50 per cent tariff on raw aluminium “feedstock”, the administration has said.
The White House said aluminium was a “key input for the production of US military systems, including armoured vehicles, naval vessels, spacecraft and missiles, as well as other key strategic products”.
US defence companies are under pressure from the Trump administration to sharply increase production as the Pentagon tries to place America’s defence industrial base on a “war footing”.
But according to a report published last month by the think-tank Safe, formerly known as Securing America’s Future Energy, the number of US smelters used to produce the type of aluminium feedstock that is processed to produce high-performance alloys has fallen from 22 to four over the past two decades.
High-purity aluminium is used to produce everything from fighter jets and missiles to advanced combat armour.
Safe estimated the US will only be able to supply a quarter of its projected aluminium demand by 2029. Iran’s attacks on Middle East aluminium smelters earlier this year, which jeopardised up to 5mn tonnes of production, demonstrated that supply disruptions can quickly translate into “operational risks for the warfighter”, it said.
The White House said: “US demand for primary aluminum currently outpaces the primary aluminum production capacity of US smelting facilities.” It added the tariff exemption “encourages increased reshoring of primary aluminum production”.
Companies will have to apply to the commerce department to secure the tariff relief and must promise to start construction by early 2029.
Jerry McGinn, a former Pentagon acquisition official and director of the centre for the industrial base at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, said the tariff relief complemented a recent policy change around “sensitive materials” such as rare earth magnets and critical minerals.
The administration on Monday tightened the conditions under which defence companies qualify for waivers from the defence department that allow them to acquire these materials from “adversaries” including China and Russia in the absence of alternatives.
McGinn noted defence companies were not sourcing materials from adversaries with enthusiasm, but had been forced to do so because “the market is what it is. It took us decades to get into this mess and it is going to take years to get the US and our allies in a better place.”
The US Aerospace Industries Association said it “appreciates the administration’s efforts to reduce US dependence on adversarial nations for critical materials”, but the waiver restrictions would “impede reaching these goals”.
“For several of the minerals identified, domestic sources either do not exist today, or the US lacks the capacity, scale or purity requirements needed to meet demand.”
Donald Trump imposed duties of up to 50 per cent on steel and aluminium imports from most major US trading partners last year using national security laws that allow the president to protect US industry.
But he partially rolled back the metals tariffs on a range of steel and aluminium products earlier this year, with many goods made of the metals being exempt from the duties.
Jesse Gary, chief executive of US-based Century Aluminum, welcomed the latest aluminium tariff exemptions.
Gary said the decision would make it “easier to make investments like Oklahoma Primary Aluminium”, a new smelter in which his company plans to invest alongside Emirates Global Aluminium.
