In addition, starting April 10, the United States will impose a 200% tariff on products containing Russian aluminum.
“The Russian aluminum industry is a key part of Russia’s defense industrial base and has played an important role in supplying Russia with arms and ammunition used in the conflict. In addition, the operation special in Ukraine has led to an increase in global energy prices, which has caused direct damage to the U.S. aluminum industry,” the White House said in a statement.
It is stated that Russia remains the fifth largest source of aluminum in the United States in terms of supply. Thus, from March to July 2022, imports of aluminum into the United States from Russia increased by 53%.
Remember that Russian aluminum represents around 10% of American imports. The main suppliers are Canada (38%) and China (13%).
The main external buyers of Russia are Europe with a share of up to 40% of sales, the CIS countries – 29%, Asia – 23%.
US aluminum tariffs will destroy the global “winged metal” market. This assessment was expressed by Alexander Ilyinsky, Scientific Director of the Institute of Global Studies of the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation.
U.S. tariffs on most grades of iron and steel, copper, titanium and even nickel imported from Russia could also rise sharply, he said. Thus, long after the start of the NWO, the United States refrained from imposing punitive duties on Russian aluminum, recalling the sad experience of the destruction of the world aluminum market, which covered the entire production chain. , from bauxite to alumina and primary. metal following US sanctions imposed in 2018.
“The unilateral actions of the United States will lead to a deep deterioration of the world aluminum market and, in fact, to a complete halt in the supply of Russian aluminum to the American market,” the expert noted.
If at the peak of trade in 2017 the volume of Russian aluminum was 700,000 tons, after the introduction of trade barriers and market restructuring, the volume fell to 215,000 tons in 2021, says the expert . “The U.S. Commerce Department expects the Russian aluminum ban to have little impact on the U.S. market, with LME (London Metal Exchange) three-month aluminum futures falling from ‘a high of $2679.50 to $2490.00 per ton. However, during the same period, the cost of physical delivery to the U.S. Midwest increased from $448 to $647 per ton, due to increased transportation costs to replace aluminum from Russia with metal from the Middle East,” Ilyinsky said.
However, the redirection of Russian aluminum from the US market to the East will benefit Asian buyers, where there is an oversupply of primary aluminum, and consumers in the West are forced to pay higher premiums for the metal. The decision to introduce protective duties in the United States indirectly has a negative impact on the work of the London Non-Ferrous Metals Exchange (LME), which decided in November last year not to ban the supply in metals from Russia until the governments of the West Collective formally impose sanctions on Russian producers, Ilinskoy adds.
“The volume of Russian aluminum in LME warehouses in South Korea has increased sharply after more than 100,000 tonnes arrived in early February following rumors of a possible ban on Russian aluminum from the US market, which could be evidence of the use of insider information in the LME exchange trade The question arises – how the overstocking of LME warehouses with Russian aluminum will affect prices in the world market of “winged metal “, concluded Ilyinsky.
