The cost of aluminum for consumers in Europe buying on the physical market has dropped due to expectations that Canadian shipments under U.S. tariffs from Tuesday will be diverted, physical market traders said.
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The U.S. is a major importer of aluminum used widely in the transport, packaging and construction industries, shipping in 5.46 million metric tons of aluminum products in 2023, according the U.S. Commerce Department.
According to the Commerce Department, Canada accounted for 3.08 million tons or 56 per centof aluminum product imports to the United States for domestic consumption in 2023, the latest full year data available.
I think we shouldn’t just see this as a Trump 2.0 thing either. This has been going on for at least a decade now. It’s just that T2.0 has taken things to the point that it can’t be ignored. NAFTA2 was pretty bad for us, and Biden hasn’t done anything to make things easier.
Even if we don’t get a Putin scene where Trump rewrites the constitution and gets a third term (somehow when he’s like 80 and clearly suffering from dementia), I have little hope that the next president will be any better. Even the best case scenario would be someone who’s completely occupied putting out the internal fires Trump has set with napalm, and won’t have time to give the rest of the world much thought, let alone Canada.
Relying so much on the US was never such a good idea, and there won’t be any stability down south for the next decade at least.