In May 2025, during a visit to the UAE, President Trump announced a strategic partnership that included commitments from Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA)- the world’s largest primary aluminum producer outside China- to invest billions in a new U.S. facility.

This evolved into a joint venture announced on January 26, 2026, between EGA (majority stake) and Century Aluminum (U.S.- based, taking a 40% stake) to build a greenfield primary aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma (near the Tulsa Port on the Verdigris River).

This marks the first new primary aluminum smelter in the U.S. since 1980, ending a long “drought” in domestic capacity amid decades of offshoring, high energy costs, and cheap imports.

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From CFACT

By Duggan Flanakin

Just months after winning a $500 million grant from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Century Aluminum announced plans to construct and operate a new aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma, that will have a production capacity of 500,000 tons per year of aluminum, including 20,000 tons of high-purity aluminum for defense applications.

Last May, President Trump, as part of his vision for reviving U.S. manufacturing industries, doubled tariffs on imported aluminum. The symbolic act (as the tariffs were later revised downward) echoed the President’s oft-stated view that along with steel, domestic aluminum is the backbone of both national security and economic independence.

Since the first U.S. aluminum smelter became operational in 1888 (just two years after the Hall-Heroult electrolytic smelting process was developed), the U.S. has been a world leader in supplying the lightweight, corrosion-resistant metal that helped transform multiple sectors of the U.S. and world economy.

The first hit on the U.S. aluminum industry came in the wake of the Arab oil embargo in 1979, as 1980 was the peak year for domestic smelting, at 908,000 metric tons. U.S. aluminum production, however, continued to climb into 1999, when about half of the 7.48 million metric tons was primary and half was secondary production.

Then, Enron happened.

As Reuters reporter Andy Home stated, a toxic combination of too little generation capacity, a chaotic pricing model, and the machinations of traders who manipulated a flawed system led to blackouts in California and a supernova hike in wholesale power prices. Aluminum smelting is a heavy power user, and all ten West Coast aluminum smelters shut down.

The final big blow to the U.S. aluminum industry came in the wake of the subprime crisis of 2008 that was like an earthquake for the U.S. automotive industry and brought about a collapse in aluminum demand. By 2016, 18 of the 23 aluminum plants in the U.S. operating in 1998 had permanently closed.

Shortly after President Trump was inaugurated for his first term, his first call for revival of the U.S. aluminum industry was rewarded when Alcoa announced it was reopening its Warwick smelter in Indiana. But in 2020, Alcoa shuttered its last remaining Pacific Northwest smelter, and the industry was again flailing against Chinese overproduction that submarined prices.

Today, the U.S. has just four operating aluminum plants with a combined output of 683,500 metric tons per year – while in 2024 the U.S. imported 5.46 million metric tons of aluminum.

Back in 2017, Home noted that import tariffs on aluminum could play a key role in returning aluminum production back to the U.S. But, he added, “when it comes to aluminum, ‘made in America’ needs to be powered in America – and that’s down to local utilities, not national policy.”

Home could not have foreseen that the Trump team in 2025 would make affordable electric energy a matter of national policy whether or not local utilities played along.

In 2025, the Trump White House did not just suggest – it demanded – that high energy users develop independent power sources [including nuclear] to keep their costs stable without interfering with other users of the electric grid.

In short, the reindustrialization of the U.S. will depend on corporate and government microgrids.

The December 2025 White House policy brief on aluminum states that the U.S. must develop a national strategy to prioritize, produce, and defend critical materials like aluminum. It further states the U.S. aluminum industry is poised for growth, given that global demand for aluminum is expected to grow by 80% through 2050 (according to the International Aluminium Institute).

The proposed Trump strategy rests on four pillars. First, pursue strong, targeted trade enforcement to defend U.S. aluminum manufacturers from Chinese and other non-market actors while leveraging trade with national security partners. That has been a major focus of Trump’s tariff policies.

Second, collect and keep more aluminum for America by strengthening recycling infrastructure and pursuing policies that grow scrap retention, collection, and sortation. [And you thought Trump wasn’t green!]

Third, recognize aluminum as critical for economic and national security through a national strategy that will secure aluminum supply chains; ensure access to efficient, reliable, affordable energy; and eliminate reliance on materials from non-market or adversarial countries.

And, finally, invest in America by investing in aluminum with common-sense tax policies that open the door to even greater private investment by aluminum companies.

President Trump has called out China’s unfair trade practices as the biggest threat to U.S. aluminum manufacturing. He cited an Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development analysis showing that China has supported its domestic industry with more than $60 billion in government subsidies in recent years.

Without China, the U.S. relies on Canada (via a Section 232 tariff exemption) for much of the aluminum its industries need – but the Canadian government has just sworn its allegiance to China, and U.S.-Canadian relations are at an all-time low.

Politically influenced strictures on U.S. aluminum imports make the Trump administration’s efforts on aluminum recycling all the more important. While the U.S. aluminum industry has invested more than $10 billion into increasing domestic capacity over the last decade, the industry relies on recycled material for more than 80% of its feedstock.

The good news is that aluminum can be infinitely recycled and that 75% of all the aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

Instead of sending $1 billion worth of aluminum beverage cans alone into landfills every year, the White House is calling for investments in recycling infrastructure and support policies – including recycling refund and extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems to increase consumer aluminum recycling.

This, says the policy brief, would support manufacturing jobs, increase U.S. independence in metal supply, save domestic energy, and minimize the industry’s impact on the environment.

But that’s not all.

President Trump wants the aluminum industry to invest in sorting technology and infrastructure to separate waste by material, then by alloy type, to foster an expansion of what can be recycled. This could keep more aluminum onshore and more readily available.

The chief reason for maximizing recycled aluminum is that only about 5% of the energy needed to manufacture new aluminum is needed to remanufacture recycled aluminum.

On the other hand, the Trump proposal calls for bringing new, affordable electricity generation online for smelters to lower the current 40% of production costs for primary smelting. That’s why the plan also calls for supporting natural gas production and pipeline expansion that utilizes abundant U.S. energy resources.

Taken as a whole, revitalizing the U.S. aluminum industry is something even the millions of Americans can help accomplish.

Imagine Joe Sixpack – helping save America one beer can at a time!

This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy