Aluminium production in the United States
This chart tracks aluminium production in the United States and its share of world output. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US made more than half of the world's aluminium; today it produces almost none.
Aluminium production in the United States
This chart shows very clearly how much aluminium the United States produces and what share of world output of the metal it holds. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US accounted for more than 50% of global aluminium production. Today it produces almost none.
US aluminium production
Aluminium production is highly energy-intensive, yet it remains one of the key measures of an economy’s development and self-sufficiency. However hard the United States tries to bring energy-intensive industry back home, and however much it cheapens primary energy by expanding shale-gas extraction and so lowering the price of electricity, European manufacturers are still in no hurry to move their energy-intensive plants to the US, despite the energy crisis and high energy costs in Europe. At the time, this energy-intensive production was moved mainly to China, South Korea and other Asian countries.
US aluminium production
The current state of aluminium production in the United States nevertheless points to a process of deindustrialisation that has already begun. Aluminium has high thermal and electrical conductivity and resists corrosion. It is a critical lightweight metal used in the aviation and aerospace industries, power generation, microelectronics, the manufacture of heating and cryogenic equipment, metallurgy, the defence industry, car manufacturing, food processing and so on. Much as I respect American culture and history and the contribution the United States has made to global development, if we set aside the liberal values it promotes today, we are witnessing the loss of the modern hegemon’s place in world industry.
US aluminium production
In its day the Netherlands, the first hegemon in world industry, trade and finance, also lost its primacy, moving its production mainly to England and other European countries and concentrating only on trade, finance and logistics. England, which took the palm from the Netherlands in the first half of the 18th century and became the greatest empire of the 19th and early 20th centuries, likewise lost its lead in world industry, moving its production to the United States and earning large profits in the process. But as history showed, it followed the Dutch path. The United States, today’s hegemon, has also followed the path of the Netherlands and England, moving its energy-intensive production to China, other South-East Asian countries and Mexico, keeping only high-tech industries and know-how, financial and trading services for itself and, of course, using its world reserve currency as a geopolitical instrument.
US aluminium production
But one thing must be understood: when a country moves its industry abroad, even if that industry is dirty and energy-intensive, it gradually loses the competence and the engineering and intellectual capacity that go with it. Restoring that competence later will be difficult and will demand far greater resources and, above all, time. And time is always short when states compete for a place in world markets.