Are tariffs the answer to save America’s declining aluminium industry?

Published

4 weeks ago

March 31, 2025

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On the banks of the Ohio River in a rural corner of one of America’s poorest states sit two factories, one next to the other.

One is open. The other is shuttered. Both cut to the heart of what Donald Trump hopes he can do to transform America’s industrial base.

Ravenswood, West Virginia, is a town built on aluminium. Since the 1950s, the wonder-metal has kept this place on the map.

Once upon a time, the metal itself was produced here. A massive smelting plant dominated the skyline, and inside, huge furnaces, transforming American aluminium ore (alumina) into the metal we recognise.

The newly smelted metal was then sent by river, rail and road to other factories dotted across the country to be cast – turned to sheet and coil for the nation’s cars, planes, trucks and so much more.

Kaiser Aluminium closed its smelters in 2009. The plant now sits idle. Fencing surrounds it; grass partially obscures the entrance, where hundreds of workers would once have passed.

Two hundred metres down the road, there is a different story.

Constellium Ravenswood is one of the world’s largest factories of its kind.

With over a thousand employees it produces plate, sheet and coiled aluminium for numerous industries: aerospace, defence, transportation, marine and more.

Its products are custom designed for clients including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and NASA.

But here’s the problem. The Constellium plant uses aluminium now sourced from abroad. America’s primary aluminium production has dropped off a cliff over the past few decades.

The Kaiser plant next door which could have provided the metal for its neighbour to process and press was instead the victim of cheap foreign competition and high energy costs.

Smelting aluminium requires huge amounts of constant energy. If the smelters are ever turned off, the metal inside will solidify, destroying the facility.

In 2023, the annual rate of US primary aluminium production fell 21.4% on the previous year, according to the Aluminium Association.

However, the Canadian Aluminium Association projected that their annual production would be up by 6.12% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

The story is clear – this industry, like so many in America, is in steep decline. Competition and high production and energy costs are having a huge impact.

The danger ahead is that secondary aluminium production in America could go the way of primary production: firms down the supply chain could choose to buy their sheeting and coils from abroad too.

The answer, says President Trump, is tariffs. And the chief executive of Constellium agrees with him.

“We believe in free AND fair trade,” Jean-Marc Germain told Sky News from the company’s corporate headquarters in Baltimore. “And the point is that trade has been free but not fair.”

“There has been massive growth in the capacity installed in China. Kudos to the Chinese people, that is admirable, but a lot of that has been allowed by illegal subsidies. What it means is that overall, trade of aluminium products is broken as an international system. And I think those tariffs are a way to address some of that very uneven playing field that we are seeing today.”

Mr Germain says the tariff plan will reset the market. He accepts that blanket tariffs are a blunt and risky tool, but cuts out circumvention by one country to another.

“Obviously, this process creates some collateral damage. It is clear that not all countries and not all products are unfairly traded. But because of the sheer size of China and the history of Chinese production making its way through certain countries into the US… a blunt approach is required,” he says.

The White House 25% tariff plan for steel and aluminium is global and causing huge angst.

Experts say a long-term domestic rebalance, revitalising the American industrial sector, will take many years and is not guaranteed.

But upending the status quo and disrupting established supply chains risks significant short and medium-term disruption, both at source and destination.

The foreign aluminium arriving at Ravenswood’s Constellium plant to be pressed will now cost 25% more – a hike in price which Mr Germain says his firm can ride out to achieve the longer-term rebalance.

“I’m not going to say that an increase in cost is a good thing for customers. But I think it’s important to look at things and put them in proportion…” he says.

Proportion is not a luxury all can afford. 250 miles to the east, in Washington DC and just four miles from the frenetic policy decisions at the White House, the Right Proper Brewing Company is a dream realised for Thor Cheston.

Thor shows me around his small warehouse-based business that is clearly thriving.

He takes me to the grain silos around the back. The grain is from Canada.

Thor relies on an international supply chain – the cans are aluminium and from Canada too. Some of the malt is from Germany and from Britain.

It is a complex global web of manufacturing to make American beer. Margins are tight.

“We don’t have the luxury of just raising our prices. We’re in a competitive landscape,” Thor says. Competition with big breweries, who can more easily absorb increased costs.

The cans will probably go up in price on his next order. He doesn’t yet know how much of the 25% will be passed on to him by his supplier.

“We’ve dealt with major problems like this before. We’ve had to pivot a lot. We have survived the global pandemic. We’ve done it before, but we don’t want to. We just need a break.”

What about the government’s argument to ‘buy American’?

“It’s not as simple as that,” Thor says.

Back in West Virginia the mighty Ohio River snakes past the Ravenswood factories.

It still carries what’s left of America’s heavy industry. A vast multi-vessel barge full of coal passed as I chatted to locals in the nearby town of Parkersburg, a pleasant place but not the thriving industrial community it once was.

“We used to have a really nice aluminium plant right down the river here and it shut down,” one resident reflects in a passing conversation.

Here you can see why many rolled the dice for Trump.

“In West Virginia, we’re big on coal,” Sam Cumpstone tells me.

He works in the railways to transport coal. The industry went through economic devastation in the late noughties, the closure of hundreds of mines causing huge unemployment.

Sam is clear on who he blames: “Obama shut down mines and made ghost towns in West Virginia. It ruined a lot of people’s lives.”

There is recognition here that Trump’s sweeping economic plans could cause prices to rise, at least in the short term. But for Trump voter Kathy Marcum, the pain would be worth it.

“He’s putting tariffs on other countries that bring their things in, and that way it equals out. It has to be even-stevens as far as I’m concerned… He is a smart businessman. He knows what the hell he’s talking about.

“It might be rough for a little while, but in the long run I think it will be best for the country.”

Communities have been let down over generations – either by politicians or by inevitable globalisation. There is still deep scepticism here.

“No politician worth millions or billions of dollars cares about me or you. Nobody,” Sam tells me at the end of our conversation.

The Trump tariff blueprint is full of jeopardy. If it fails, it will be places like West Virginia, that will be hit hardest again.

US

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2025

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.

In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in the Perth suburb of Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Police said emergency services received reports of an unresponsive woman at a property in Neergabby on Friday night.

“Police and St John Western Australia attended and provided emergency first aid. Sadly, the 41-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene,” a police spokeswoman said.

“The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.”

Sexual assault claims

Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.

In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.

She stuck by her version of events until the end

Of the many dozens of victims of Jeffrey Epstein, it was Virginia Giuffre who became the most high-profile.

She was among the loudest and most compelling voices, urging criminal charges to be brought against Epstein, waving her right to anonymity in 2015.

She told how he and Ghislaine Maxwell groomed her and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to be used by rich and powerful men.

But her name and face became known around the world after she accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17 years old.

The picture of her together with the prince and Maxwell at the top of a staircase, his hand around her waist, is the defining image of the whole scandal.

Prince Andrew said he had no memory of the occasion. But Giuffre stuck by her version of events until the end.

‘An incredible champion’

Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, said in a statement that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.

“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”

“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.

Dini von Mueffling, Ms Giuffre’s representative, also said that “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims,” she added. “She adored her children and many animals.

“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words.

“It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.

Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.

She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.

‘A survivor’

After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.

She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.

“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”

:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

US

Trump met with Zelenskyy ahead of Pope’s funeral

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2025

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Trump met with Zelenskyy ahead of Pope's funeral

Donald Trump has met Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the Pope’s funeral, Vatican sources have told Sky News.

The US and Ukrainian presidents had a “very productive discussion”, according to a White House Official, and have also agreed to hold further talks after the service.

They are among world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, who are attending the funeral of Pope Francis.

Follow live updates: Zelenskyy among world leaders joining thousands of mourners

There was applause from some of those gathered in St Peter’s Square when the Ukrainian leader walked out.

The former British ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.

He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine, and is their first face-to-face meeting after a very public row between the presidents at the White House in February.

The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.

Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.

Meanwhile, the Polish Armed Forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening, in a post on X.

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US

Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine are ‘very close to a deal’ – and says ‘two sides should now meet’

Published

2 days ago

April 25, 2025

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Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine are 'very close to a deal' - and says 'two sides should now meet'

Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” with “most of the major points agreed” – as he called for the two sides to meet.

Shortly after arriving in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral, the US president said high-level officials should now meet to “finish [the deal] off”.

“A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’.

“Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”

Throughout the week, the US president has criticised both Ukraine and Russia for failing to agree to a peace deal.

On Wednesday, he accused Mr Zelenskyy of harming talks on Truth Social, saying “the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE”.

A day later, after nine people were killed in Kyiv after a Russian missile and drone strike, Mr Trump said: “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

The president and other officials have also threatened to withdraw from negotiations if no progress is made toward a deal.

It comes after Mr Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for Ukraine.

The talks allowed Russia and the United States to “further bring their positions closer together” on “a number of international issues”, a Kremlin aide said.

Speaking earlier on the flight to Italy, Mr Trump said he hadn’t been fully briefed on Mr Witkoff and Mr Putin’s meeting – but added it was a “pretty good meeting”.

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it would not accept a deal conceding land or handing over sovereignty to Russia.

However, Mr Trump said in an interview with TIME magazine that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” describing the region as a place where Moscow has “had their submarines” and “the people speak largely Russian”.

“Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time,” he added. “It’s been with them long before Trump came along.”

When asked on Friday about Mr Trump’s comments, Mr Zelenskyy did not want to comment but repeated that recognising occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian is a red line.