Safe calls for targeted aluminum export ban

In a blog post titled “Scrap, or Strategic Asset? America Must Rethink its Approach to Secondary Aluminum,” Joe Quinn, executive director of the Center for Strategic Industrial Materials at SAFE, calls for “narrowly scoped export restrictions on high-grade, processable aluminum scrap, especially used beverage cans (UBCs) and automotive sheet,” which he says “can ensure aluminum feedstock supports U.S. manufacturers first.”

Based in Washington, SAFE is a nonpartisan organization committed to transportation, energy and supply chain policies that advance the economic and national security of the United States, its partners and allies.

In the blog post, Quinn notes the ubiquity of aluminum in modern life, writing that it is used in everything from building and electrical infrastructure to the aerospace and defense sectors.

“It is estimated that Americans are never more than 6 feet away from a piece of aluminum—which is common in consumer products but also provides essential structural support to our energy and transportation infrastructure,” he says. “Military grade aluminum is also irreplaceable in defense manufacturing, making aluminum supply security a national security imperative.”

He adds that U.S. aluminum demand is projected to increase from 11.5 million to 16.6 million metric tons by 2030 to meet the needs of the infrastructure, energy, defense and packaging sectors.

Despite its importance, he says Americans “take aluminum for granted and must be more deliberate about how we use (and reuse) this strategic industrial material,” noting secondary aluminum produced through recycling can meet the needs of many U.S. industries.

“Aluminum scrap must be prioritized as a strategic asset, and we must reconsider recycling practices and policies concerning secondary aluminum—not only to meet increasing demand, but to prevent this valuable resource from flowing to our competitors or adversaries,” Quinn writes.

While the Trump administration wants to rebuild the primary aluminum sector in the U.S., Quinn acknowledges that doing so would take years.

“In the interim, bolstering secondary aluminum production through recycling is an obvious choice,” he says. “So is ensuring adequate volumes [of scrap] remain in the U.S.”

However, Quinn says, the U.S. is exporting increasing volumes of scrap metal, shipping over 2 million metric tons overseas in 2023 alone.

“As the U.S. fails to recycle aluminum and instead ships its scrap to China, we become even more dependent on adversarial supply chains, allowing them to expand and strengthen their recycling capabilities, while we undercut our domestic capability,” Quinn says.

He notes that the U.S. has the scrap, technology and policy tools to lead in global aluminum recycling and meet much of its future aluminum demand via secondary production.

“Several policy approaches could allow the U.S. to preserve and process critical aluminum scrap metal domestically, including modernizing trade enforcement, imposing precision export restrictions and investing in domestic capabilities and technologies,” Quinn says.

He recommends export restrictions on high-grade, processable aluminum scrap, especially UBCs, and automotive sheet, updating the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to reflect quality and processability, allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to differentiate between strategic recyclable scrap and waste; and offering federal support and incentivizing investments for advanced, artificial intelligence-powered sorting and recovery technology and infrastructure.

Quinn adds that the U.S. government has the tools needed to act, including using Section 232 and 301 authorities to justify targeted scrap export controls on a national security basis; using FAST-41 and the Defense Production Act to fast-track infrastructure development and incentivize public-private partnerships to build the U.S.’ recycling and manufacturing industrial base; integrating scrap policy into ongoing metals-for-defense initiatives by the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Commerce; and Congressionally approved appropriations for regional recycling hubs, manufacturing projects and facilities to complement direct investments and updated trade measures and restrictions.

Along with the Section 232 tariffs effective Aug. 1 on imports of semifinished copper products (such as copper pipes, wires, rods, sheets and tubes) and copper-intensive derivative products (such as pipe fittings, cables, connectors and electrical components), the Trump administration has proposed a ceiling on exports of “high-quality copper scrap” and a potential copper scrap-specific licensing system, though neither have been enacted yet.

“A targeted scrap metal export ban, dedicated investments in processing technologies and capabilities and updated trade measures represent a strategic opportunity to reclaim our position on aluminum. If we fail to take advantage of our abundance of scrap aluminum, we will waste a competitive advantage—ceding the future of aluminum to the Chinese,” Quinn concludes.

The author is editorial director of the Recycling Today Media Group and can be reached at dtoto@gie.net.