According to documents posted to its website, Alcoa said no US aluminum
producer can meet its specification needs and quality requirements for
rolling slabs used at its Warrick, Indiana plant to produce aluminum for
can manufacturers.
Alcoa`s application for a waiver from 10% tariffs on the Canadian
aluminum rolling slabs is the start of an effort to try to roll back the
Trump administration`s tariffs on Canadian aluminum imports, a company
official said. More such requests are planned, the official said.
Alcoa, the No. 1 US aluminum producer, operates three aluminum
smelters in hydropower-rich Quebec, employing about 3 300 people, in
addition to its three smelters in the United States.
In an opening shot of growing global trade tensions, the United
States imposed global tariffs of 10% on aluminum imports and 25% on
steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum based on national security
grounds, arguing that financially healthy US producers of both metals
were needed to keep America safe.
Although most trade and industry experts blame U.S. steel and
aluminum producers` woes on excess output in China, the tariffs also
were applied to Canada, the European Union and Mexico in June.
These countries have responded with retaliatory tariffs on US
products ranging from motorcycles to bourbon whiskey and ketchup. US
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has linked a
deal to lift the metals tariffs on Canada and Mexico to negotiations
over a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement.
Alcoa said in July it will incur as much as $14-million a month in
extra expenses, mainly from tariffs levied on aluminum imported from
Canada, its biggest supplier.
"Even if all the curtailed smelting capacity in the states was back
online and producing metal, the United States would still need to import
the majority of its aluminum, and most of it from Canada," said Tim Reyes, president of Alcoa Aluminum, one of the company`s three business units.
Section 232 tariffs should be removed from Canada and other fair-trading partners, Reyes said.
CEO Roy Harvey told
investors in July that Alcoa was in "active discussions" with the Trump
administration, the Commerce Department and members of Congress about
the elimination of tariffs or getting an exception for Canadian
aluminum.
Alcoa on Monday filed five applications for one-year exclusions from
Section 232 tariffs on imports of "primary aluminum alloyed slab" that
it says is not available from any other US manufacturer.