Aluminum Association launches “America Needs Aluminum” campaign

The Aluminum Association launched “America Needs Aluminum,” a new public awareness and advocacy campaign highlighting aluminum’s essential role in the US economy and calling for policies that help America make, recycle and build more with this critical material.

The campaign centers on a straightforward message: America needs aluminum - let’s make more of it here. It builds on the association’s broader “all-of-the-above” strategy for aluminum supply, which calls for expanding both recycled and primary aluminum production, strengthening domestic manufacturing, improving energy availability and aggressively confronting unfair trade.

“Aluminum is essential to nearly every part of modern American life - from our cars, homes and packaging to the power grid, fighter jets and advanced manufacturing,” said Charles Johnson, president & CEO of the Aluminum Association. “And we’re going to need a lot more of it to meet current and growing demand. We can either make more of it here or cede the field to strategic rivals like China. The question for policymakers is simple: Are we creating the conditions to make more aluminum, recycle more aluminum and build more with aluminum here in America?”

The America Needs Aluminum campaign makes the case that meeting future demand will require action across the entire aluminum value chain. The campaign calls for reliable and competitively priced energy to support primary production; policies that capture and recycle more aluminum scrap domestically; continued investment in U.S. manufacturing; and targeted trade enforcement against unfairly traded aluminum from non-market actors.

According to the International Aluminium Institute, global aluminum demand is projected to grow roughly 80% by 2050. The United States currently produces less than 20% of the primary aluminum it uses each year and meeting that demand domestically would require building 5 to 6 new greenfield aluminum smelters. At the same time, recycled aluminum has become an increasingly important part of the domestic supply picture, accounting for around 85% of American aluminum production today. The U.S. aluminum industry has invested more than $11 billion – largely in mid-and-downstream production and recycling – over the past decade.

“America does not face a choice between primary and recycled aluminum - we need both,” Johnson added. “Smelters need customers. Manufacturers need metal. Recyclers need strong domestic markets. The goal should be to grow the entire American aluminum value chain and give companies the confidence to invest here for the long term.”