How China's role in reshaping the US aluminium rolling sector could drive major investment

摘要

Two events have served as the catalyst for improved US rolling margins and have spurred numerous investments in capacity. First came the US anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on Chinese foil and common alloy products which decimated such trade between the two countries. In the aftermath of the Section 232 and 301 investigations, China retaliated by slapping a 50% im- port duty on US aluminium scrap, again collapsing such trade. The dumping cases brought life to a US rolling sector that had been struggling for years as rock-bot- tom Chinese prices compressed domestic margins. The duty on US scrap imports pushed back massive amounts of scrap into the US market, pushing prices to his- torically low levels. An analysis by Doug Hilderhoff, principal analyst at CRU.