The US Beer Institute has called on the United States government to scrutinize aluminium price irregularities and distortions, referring to speculative activity to warehouse and withhold metal as being among the reasons for high premiums.
James McGreevy, president and chief executive officer of the Beer Institute, noted past comments by US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that "antisocial behavior" by market participants had led to price distortions in the past. He also noted comments by Secretary Ross that this kind of behavior had helped push prices up beyond levels that would have been anticipated as a result of the Section 232 tariffs. "He [Secretary Ross] said there has been a lot of speculative activity - storing inventory, withholding product from the market - by various intermediary parties. The effect was to send the price of both steel and aluminium up far more than might be justified by the Section 232 tariffs," McGreevy said in a testimony to the US International Trade Commission (ITC). "If the irregularities and distortions continue, North American end users will continue to pay artificially increased prices for aluminium, including domestically-produced metal,...