Trump tariff can cause 100,000 US aluminium industry job loses
The CEO of aluminium producer Alcoa has warned Donald Trump’s planned tariffs could result in 100,000 US job losses. US President Donald Trump said earlier this month he would impose a flat 25% tariff on aluminium imports in a bid to boost US production of the metal.
But Bill Oplinger, Alcoa’s CEO, told the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference in Florida yesterday the tariffs could cost about 20,000 US aluminium industry jobs and a further 80,000 jobs in sectors that support it.
“This is bad for the aluminium industry in the US, it’s bad for American workers,” he said.
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa, which produces aluminium in Canada, Iceland, Australia and elsewhere, had reduced its output in the US in recent years partly due to electricity costs.
He added the tariffs alone would not be enough to entice Alcoa to restart some of its idled US facilities, adding Trump officials have asked the company to do that.
“It’s very hard to make an investment decision, even on something like a restart, without knowing how long the tariffs will last,” Oplinger said.
“If we were to be able to find cheap, low-cost energy in the US, then we would actually consider an investment in the US, but it has to be energy for a very long period of time.”
