GCC aluminium producers will not react ‘hastily’ to US tariffs

• GCC aluminium investments $58bn
• Smelters produce 6.3m tonnes
• 10% exported to US

Gulf Arab aluminum producers will “not react hastily” to new US customs duties and seek new markets for its products, Saudi Arabia’s Aleqtisadia reported, citing a Gulf industry body.

Aluminum smelters in the six GCC countries only export about 10 percent of their output to the US market, said Mahmoud Al-Daylami, secretary general of the Dubai-based Gulf Aluminum Council, according to Aleqtisadia.

The US last week imposed a minimum 10 percent import tax on all but a few products on all countries, including the GCC states. Energy is exempted.

“GCC aluminium companies will not hastily react to Trump’s tax decision or take any improvised commercial decision,” Daylami is quoted as saying. “They will closely watch these developments before they take any strategic decisions to guarantee their interests.”

“Exploring new markets has always been part of the GCC aluminum policy even before the US decided to impose the new taxes,” he said.

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Smelters in the GCC bloc – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE – produce nearly 6.3 million tonnes per year of aluminium, accounting for around 10 percent of the world’s total smelter production of 64 million tonnes, the newspaper stated. Of this, they export 3.8 million tonnes per year.

GCC countries, which created their political, defence and economic alliance in 1981, invested nearly $58 billion into their aluminium industries as part of the drive to diversify their economies away from oil, according to the Doha-based Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting.