US extruders face the severest challenges in a generation

摘要

'Challenging' seems to be the word of the day when it comes to the North American aluminium extrusions market, and it will likely to continue to be so at least for the rest of this year and most likely for much of 2010. "It isn't easy when all of our major markets do not help," declares Jeff Knapton, vice president of marketing for Indalex Aluminum Solutions, Lincolnshire, 111. "This is the most surreal market I have ever seen. There is so much uncertainty." Lynn Brown, spokesman for Hydro Aluminum North America agrees, noting that even though the extrusions market has already been down for some time, it is now considerably weaker than it had been a year ago or even just a few months ago and is not following the same demand pattern usual for the industry.