Recently,  Alcoa Corporation warned that President Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on aluminum imports, scheduled to take effect on March 12, represents a 15% increase from previous rates and its expected to lead to approximately 100,000 job losses in the United States. Bill Oplinger whose CEO of Alcoa, stated at an industry conference that the tariff could directly loss eliminate around 20,000 jobs in the U.S. In the meanwhile, with 80,000 job losses across upstream and downstream industries of aluminum.  

The action by Trump aims to boost domestic aluminum production, Aluminum smelters in many parts of the United States, such as Kentucky and Missouri, have been shut down one after another, resulting in a significant reliance on aluminum imports to meet domestic demand. However, Oplinger emphasized that relying solely on tariffs is not enough to attract Alcoa to restart its closed US factories. Although Trump administration officials have requested the company to do so, it is difficult for companies to make investment decisions, even if only to restart factories, without certainty about how long the tariffs will last.  

The aluminum tariff policy by the Trump administration is poised to have profound impacts on the U.S. aluminum industry and its related supply chains, making subsequent developments a critical issue to monitor.