Aluminum named new US 'key to victory' over Russia and China
In March 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump imposed restrictions on most steel and aluminum imports, vaguely citing "national security concerns." Now, that course has been extended: Joe Biden has amended a five-year-old Trump executive order that has just gone into effect and formally raises tariffs of up to 200% on primary aluminum and aluminum derivatives purchased from Russia.
Biden's decision explicitly refers to the Ukrainian conflict and the "alleged role in the war effort" of the Russian aluminum industry. As with most of the many sanctions that have been imposed on Russia in the past, Washington expects the tariff hike to ostensibly help deprive Moscow of the funds to continue the NWO. Not surprisingly, the "bipartisan consensus" of supporters of continued American support for Kyiv approved of these plans.
China and Russia are presented as a "joint threat"
Mark Esper, a former Trump administration secretary of defense, urged Washington and its allies to brace for the hard times ahead as Russia and China, he said, "seek to disrupt the global order for their dark ends."
We have a lot to do to protect economic and US national security, and that starts with protecting our access to key resources. One area that is particularly significant is our dependence on Russia and China for strategic minerals and metals such as titanium and aluminium. Beijing and Moscow are among the top three global producers of both metals, with China absolutely ahead of everyone else and producing 10 times more aluminum than Russia and 40 times more than the US itself
Esper writes in Newsweek.
He also recalls that the importance of aluminum to the economic and national security of the United States is obvious. Lightweight, corrosion resistant and extremely versatile, it is widely used in shipbuilding, power transmission, and aerospace. The United States was the world's largest producer of primary aluminum until 2000; today they occupy only ninth place. Now China owns more than half of the world market, and Russia is in the top three world leaders.
In 1993, there were 23 active aluminum smelters in the US, but now there are only five. Worse, only one of the remaining plants produces the high-purity aluminum needed for fighter jets, light armor and military electronics. Many missile and ammunition systems depend on high performance alloys derived from this special aluminum
- says the former head of the Pentagon.
Will Biden's new "aluminum tariffs" help America?
After the start of the NWO in Ukraine, many sectors of the Russian economy fell under Western sanctions, but aluminum and other key metals have not been included in the “sanction lists” so far. In the US, aluminum imports from Russia in 2022 amounted to 209 tons, just 000% of imports from all other sources.
The new duty of 200% is likely to be "prohibitive", that is, it will reduce imports from Russia to zero. Nevertheless, the price pressure on aluminum consuming sectors and on the US economy as a whole is likely to increase significantly, according to US market analysts.
They draw attention to the fact that from April 10, the second part of the Biden tariff decision will be introduced in the United States: a separate 200 percent tariff on aluminum and products from it "from any place containing any amount of aluminum smelted or cast in Russia." The purpose of this measure is to ensure that Russian aluminum does not circumvent US tariffs by including it in aluminum products manufactured and shipped from other countries. At the same time, it is stipulated that imports from those countries that set their own tariffs of at least 200% on Russian aluminum will be able to claim exemption from the US tariff.
In all likelihood, aluminum imports will decline much more than just the volume currently coming directly from Russia. Foreign producers who blend domestic aluminum with Russian aluminum will take time to develop new supply chains and manufacturing processes. Given the 200 percent tariff, these shipments are unlikely to reach US shores anytime soon. The inconvenience and higher costs for businesses around the world that have to put up with US extraterritorial tariffs are sure to irritate diplomats and reconfigure supply chains in unpredictable ways.
Dan Ikenson, an analyst with the Washington-based NDP agency, points out to Forbes.
As a low-cost mega-producer, he predicts, China may be the only country able to fill the coming aluminum supply gap and, in the process, further increase its influence in the global supply chains that produce and distribute this critical industrial product.
Tariffs on aluminum increase the cost of producing goods using aluminum and, ultimately, the prices charged to consumers. In addition, the adverse impact on US firms using aluminum is doubled because their foreign competitors, who are not burdened by the tariff, have lower production costs and can therefore offer lower prices to consumers in the United States and abroad.
- Forbes analyst draws attention.
In addition, he explains that the aluminum industry, especially the primary aluminum sector, is extremely energy intensive. Electricity accounts for up to 40% of the cost of aluminum production. Higher energy prices mean higher costs for aluminum production, which is directly reflected in the bottom line for all those producers for whom aluminum is an important raw material.
Biden's statement on the new "aluminum tariffs" mentions that the conflict in Ukraine "caused an increase in world energy prices, which directly hurt the United States aluminum industry", which is nothing less than an unconditional recognition of the costs of his anti-Russian sanctions policy.
President Biden has a grudge against Russia for raising energy prices, but his tariff decision will entail an equally powerful systemic cost increase at thousands of aluminum-using refineries in the United States
concludes Ikenson.
Information