Domestic drought of strategic metal is over thanks to levies
For nearly half a century, the United States failed to build a single new primary aluminum smelter. Not one.
That drought is ending now in Inola, Oklahoma — and for one simple reason: President Trump’s tariffs work. Century Aluminum, the largest producer of primary aluminum in the United States, has announced a partnership with Emirates Global Aluminum to build the first new U.S. primary aluminum production plant since 1980.
Aluminum is not a luxury metal. It is a strategic material essential to modern defense and industrial power. Fighter jets, armored vehicles, naval vessels, satellites, missiles, drones, ammunition, electrical systems and military packaging all depend on secure supplies of primary aluminum.