American Companies Still Make Aluminum. In Iceland.
Alcoa, formerly the Aluminum Company of America, and another American company, Century Aluminum, have opened factories like this in Iceland,
and closed factories in the United States, for a simple reason: Electricity is much cheaper here.
“You’ve got to have jobs to buy stuff.”
The industry has found a sympathetic audience in Mr. Trump, who has described the
decline of domestic smelting as a “disaster” caused by “unfair foreign trade.”
But the aluminum industry does not want to bring back the jobs
that have moved to Canada and Iceland and other countries where American companies now have operations.
Only 10 percent of American aluminum imports last year came from China, but the industry argues
that everyone is forced to compete against the Chinese prices — and Western companies are struggling to turn a profit.
Electricity in Iceland costs about 30 percent less than what Alcoa might pay in the United States.