Trade group wants to ban export of scrap aluminum cans to China

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A trade group representing the aluminum industry called on Tuesday for a ban on U.S. exports of used beverage cans to China to support American production of cars, fighter jets, tanks and satellites.

The Aluminum Association said the United States consumes between 5 million to 6 million metric tons of aluminum scrap annually while exporting more than 2 million tons. The group called for an immediate ban on used beverage container exports outside of North America on national security grounds, saying much of U.S. scrap flows to China where it is processed and shipped back as finished goods.

The group said the U.S. aluminum industry faces a supply gap of about 4 million metric tons of raw aluminum each year and becoming self-sufficient would “take many years, billions of dollars and access to an enormous amount of affordable energy.”

The United States exports nearly half of its scrap aluminum.

This is even more concerning as demand for aluminum grows in key areas like cars, planes and packaging, the association said.

President Donald Trump in June imposed 50% tariffs on aluminum metal shipped to the United States. About two-thirds of the primary aluminum used annually in the United States is imported from Canada.

In August, the Commerce Department said it was hiking steel and aluminum tariffs on more than 400 products including numerous auto parts totaling $240 billion in annual imports. The parts include automotive exhaust systems and electrical steel needed for electric vehicles as well as components for buses.

U.S. tariffs are not just limited to steel and aluminum themselves, but extend to a range of ‘derivative’ products made from the metals.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Chizu Nomiyama )