Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott said that despite the Trump administration's recent proposal to provide aluminum companies investing in the US with a discount of halving import tariffs on some metals, the company has no intention of investing in aluminum smelting production capacity in the US. Rio Tinto is a major shipper of aluminum products from its Canadian plant to the US, and the company says the total costs associated with tariffs have exceeded $1 billion over the past year. The company currently does not have any aluminum smelters in the US. Trott said in an interview that Rio Tinto's focus in the US is its copper and lithium business rather than increasing any aluminum production capacity in the country. “We do have an important business layout in the US,” he said, “including the Resolution Copper project in Arizona, the copper business in Utah, and a lithium plant in North Carolina. Trott said the company “is really focusing on these opportunities at this stage rather than seeking to build a smelter in the US”.
Zhitongcaijing·07/29/2026 04:41:04
Listen to the news
Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott said that despite the Trump administration's recent proposal to provide aluminum companies investing in the US with a discount of halving import tariffs on some metals, the company has no intention of investing in aluminum smelting production capacity in the US. Rio Tinto is a major shipper of aluminum products from its Canadian plant to the US, and the company says the total costs associated with tariffs have exceeded $1 billion over the past year. The company currently does not have any aluminum smelters in the US. Trott said in an interview that Rio Tinto's focus in the US is its copper and lithium business rather than increasing any aluminum production capacity in the country. “We do have an important business layout in the US,” he said, “including the Resolution Copper project in Arizona, the copper business in Utah, and a lithium plant in North Carolina. Trott said the company “is really focusing on these opportunities at this stage rather than seeking to build a smelter in the US”.