U.S. aluminum purchases dropped 21% in the first quarter

Demand of aluminum mill products has dropped 21.3% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, Purchasing.com has calculated from Aluminum Association data. The statistics show first quarter mill-product shipments of 2,985,000 lb minus exports of 252,900 lb plus imports of 332,700 lb. That totals 3,065,000 lb, which compares with 3,894,000 in the year-ago first quarter. Aluminum Association data shows that sheet, foil and plate shipments all have dropped in excess of 20% from last year’s first quarter while extruded products are down 37% and electric wire and cable has slipped by almost 6%. New order bookings in the first four months of this year are indexed at 73.08 (100 = 2007), which compares with 101.75 through April of last year, a decline of 28.2%. Paul Williams of CRU Group writes for Aluminum Association members that the global aluminum market may have hit bottom in early June but adds there still is a huge 444,000 metric ton (490 billion lb) stockpile of excess metal overhanging the market. “CRU does believe the worst of the demand slump is over, although any global economic recovery will be fragile and bumpy, and no more so than in the U.S.,” he writes. “Even with demand recovering from its first half nadir, we still expect global demand to fall by 11% this year.”