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Aluminum's predicament: with demand expected to grow at a 10 percent annual rate in the next decade, producers will have a hard time keeping up. Tight supplies won't loosen up anytime soon, especially as China feeds its growing needs.

Article Excerpt
Though many aluminum mills and distributors broke shipment, sales and profit records in 2004, the challenges facing the industry remain plentiful. They include producing enough material to meet demand, managing unpredictable costs and competing in markets that are ever more globalized.

Martha Finn Brooks, president of Alcan Corp. and chief operating officer of Novelis--Alcan's newly spun-off Rolled Products unit--was extremely upbeat about the outlook for aluminum, but warned that the industry must be creative to survive dynamic changes down the road.

"Things are very good right now," Brooks told members of the Metals Service Center Institute's Aluminum Products Division at their conference Nov. 18 near San Diego. "Some of us are breaking volume and profitability records. But we have to reflect and begin to plan for the next parts of the cycle."

From the mill perspective, she said, demand was strong through November, with a normal seasonal slowdown in orders expected in December. "We see this solid market going forward into 2005," in spite of the effect of high energy prices on mills' cost structure.

Domestic shipments of flat-rolled products were as high as they've ever been, Brooks said, "which means mills have been able to get more capacity out." She attributed this boom to...

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