Global Energy Crisis Piles Pressure on Aluminum Supply
- Metal is so energy intensive it’s known as ‘solid electricity’
- Aluminum extends gains to highest since July 2008 in London
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Aluminum jumped to the highest since 2008 as a deepening power crisis squeezes supplies of the energy-intensive metal that’s used in everything from beer cans to iPhones.
Industry insiders like to joke that aluminum is basically “solid electricity.” Each ton of metal takes about 14 megawatt hours of power to produce, enough to run an average U.K. home for more than three years. If the 65 million ton-a-year aluminum industry was a country, it would rank as the fifth-largest power consumer in the world.