Companies plan to build first U.S. aluminum smelter since 1980, in a boon for Trump’s agenda

Century Aluminum and an Emirati firm said Monday they will build the first U.S.-based aluminum smelter in nearly 50 years, a major boost for President Trump’s plan to drive domestic production through tariffs and tax policy.

Century, an American company, and Emirates Global Aluminium said the primary production plant in Inola, Oklahoma, will churn out 750,000 tons of aluminum per year, reducing reliance on imports.

The White House took a victory lap, saying its tariff policies are preventing other countries from dumping cheap metals in the U.S. and that its tax policies make it easier to invest in U.S.-based factories.

“For decades, America’s once-dominant steel and aluminum industries were hollowed out by unfair trade deals,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “That ended the day President Trump took office. Thanks to this administration’s policies, Century Aluminum is now building a state-of-the-art primary aluminum production plant in Oklahoma — the first aluminum smelter to be built in the United States in almost 50 years. And President Trump is just getting started.”

The massive project will take a while to get off the ground.

Construction should start by the end of 2026, and production is scheduled to begin by the end of the decade, according to the companies.

The companies expect to create 1,000 permanent direct jobs at the facility and 4,000 jobs during construction.

Mr. Trump imposed a 50% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports as part of his trade blitz last year.

The administration said excess production in places like China resulted in a flood of cheap metals dumped in the U.S., undercutting the domestic industry and making the U.S. over-reliant on foreign metals.

Mr. Trump had started his tariff push during his first term. The Biden administration largely kept levies in place with some modifications.

The second Trump administration decided that too many countries received exemptions from preexisting metal tariffs, so the president moved to make the levies stiffer and airtight.

The creation of a new aluminum smelter is significant because the U.S. industry, in recent years, focused mainly on downstream operations such as rolling mills and recycling operations.

Canada, for instance, is flush with electricity from hydroelectric operations in Quebec and elsewhere, making it a major producer of primary aluminum. Meanwhile, it is difficult to get the kind of affordable electricity needed to make new smelters in the U.S.

The White House said its deregulation and “energy abundance policies” ameliorated those issues.

The companies also credited recent policies.

“We are once again proving that President Trump’s leadership is working to spur investment and innovation to revitalize the U.S. aluminum industry, which is essential to our nation’s defense and the economic vitality of working-class communities across the country,” Century Aluminum CEO Jesse Gary said.

The smelter will be built at an industrial park at the Tulsa Port of Inola. It is part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which connects to the Mississippi River system and will allow for “efficient bulk freight movement,” the companies said.