US, Canadian aluminum shipments up 1.5% in January: association

Washington--26Mar2007 Aluminum shipments and imports in the US and Canada rose by 1.5% in January compared with January 2006, to 2.162 billion lb, according to the US Aluminum Association's Situation report released Monday.

The report is based on preliminary estimates for January and follows an earlier report from the association showing that net new orders for February were down 7.2% from February 2006 and 8.4% from the prior month.

January shipments of semi-fabricated (mill) products totaled 1.42 billion lb, down 0.8% from the January 2006 total. Apparent consumption (demand less exports) in domestic markets totaled an estimated 1.919 billion lb, up a bare 0.1% from the January 2006 level. Shipments of sheet and plate showed the healthiest demand in January, rising 4% to 834.6 million lb from 802.9 million lb in January 2006, while shipments of extruded products fell 11.3% to 333.6 million lb from 376 million lb. Extrusion shipments were also off 21.3% from the prior month (December 2006). January foil shipments declined to 118.7 million lb from 128.4 million lb in January 2006, a 7.6% decrease.

Exports of aluminum from the US and Canada,excluding cross-border trade, totaled 461 million lb in January, up 8.9% from January 2006. Imports, however, were down 27.7% from a year ago to 411 million lb in January compared with 568.5 million lb in January 2006. The decline in imports was seen most strongly in ingot, where imports fell 45.6% to 211.8 million lb from 389.8 million lb in January 2006. Imports of mill products actually rose to 165.4 million lb from 149.2 million lb, while imports of scrap also rose 14% to 33.7 million lb from 29.5 million lb.

Exports by category were up most strongly for ingot, where exports rose 27.7 % to 154.7 million lb from 121.2 million lb in January 2006. Exports of mill products fell 4.4% to 87.6 million lb from 91.7 million lb. Exports of scrap rose more moderately than they have in other recent periods, to 218.5 million lb in January 2007 from 210.2 million lb in January 2006.

As previously reported by Platts, aluminum production in the US and Canada rose 1% in February 2007 to an annual rate of 5,480,892 mt.