‘It’s like déjà vu’: can Trump’s tariffs revive American aluminium? | US president’s plan to kick-start US industry risks being thwarted by the high price of electricity

> The Magnitude 7 Metals aluminium plant near the banks of the Mississippi is eerily quiet these days, its electrolysis cells dark and devoid of people, its once white-hot smelters cold to the touch.

> “It breaks my heart, ‘cos I’ve seen it in all its glory,” said Greg Lester, the facility’s manager, gesturing upwards to its cavernous vaults.

> The plant, a short drive from New Madrid in the economically depressed Missouri Bootheel, symbolises the decline of US heavy industry. It is a slump that President Donald Trump is determined to arrest and reverse.

> His instrument of choice is tariffs. Last month, he announced he was increasing levies on aluminium from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, saying imports of the metal were threatening to impair US national security.

> Trump’s economic nationalism has a clear goal. By addressing trade imbalances, he wants to resuscitate moribund domestic industries, reshore jobs and lessen American dependence on imports of critical metals.

> But it will take more than that to restore the fortunes of Magnitude 7, or Mag7 as it is known. The downturn in the US industry is being driven above all by high energy costs. And they show no sign of abating.

> “Unless I have power at a fair price I can’t restart the facility,” said Lester.

> Production at Mag7 was curtailed in January last year, when the Mississippi River froze over, disrupting the supply of critical raw materials to the plant. But high energy prices were already taking their toll, making it ever harder for the plant to turn a profit.

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