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Economic Profile and Trends
Value of Shipments | Annual Production | Labor Productivity
The aluminum industry enjoyed considerable stability in terms of demand and prices throughout the early 1970s. Since then, continuing economic fluctuations have become the norm. The world aluminum industry had a painful adjustment to the production of excess metal from Russia, and production and prices remain sensitive to events in the global marketplace. The U.S. aluminum industry employed more than 76,000 Americans in 2001, with an annual payroll of nearly $3.1 billion. In addition, over 63,000 Americans are employed in casting aluminum products. [DOC 2001, AA 1999]
The U.S. aluminum industry is the world's largest, accounting for 17% of the world's primary aluminum production in 1997. [AA 1998, 2000] Production and shipments of primary aluminum have risen steadily since 1994, however, 2000 saw a 4.1% decline from 1999. Imports of ingots and mill products rose 12.4% between 1998 and 1999; exports of the same rose 5.7% during the same time period. [AA 2000]
The aluminum industry spent over $1 billion in new capital expenditures in 2001. [DOC 2001] It also spent in excess of $100 million for pollution control equipment in 1993 and 1994 combined, more than half of which was spent on air pollution control equipment. [DOC 1994]
Value of Shipments |
$28.1 billion |
Employment |
76,354 |
Average Hourly Wages
(Production Workers) |
$17.45 |
Capital Expenditures |
$1.2 billion |
R&D Expenditures* (1997) |
$353 million |
Pollution Abatement Expenditures (1994)
Captial
Operating |
$42 million
$241 million |
Trade
Imports
Exports
Balance |
$6.8 billion
$3.6 billion
-$3.2 billion |
Source: DOC 1994, DOC 2001, ITA 2001, NSF 1997
* Includes R&D Expenditures for all non-ferrous metal production.
The industry and its downstream processors have a combined value of shipments of about $28 billion annually
About 8,087 million pounds of primary aluminum and 7,606 million pounds of secondary aluminum were produced in 2000
The number of man-hours to produce a ton of primary aluminum has decreased over the last 10 years
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