The Aluminium Crisis Nobody Saw Coming

Aluminium prices are at a four-year high, up more than 25% this year, as war in the Middle East and a blocked Strait of Hormuz choke off nearly a quarter of the world's seaborne metal supply. In this episode, Henry Sanderson speaks with Paul Adkins of AZ Global Consulting about the structural shortage reshaping the aluminium market: which Gulf smelters have been knocked out, why a bombed plant can take a year or more to rebuild, and why China — which makes 60% of the world's aluminium — won't ride to the rescue. Plus: how Europe's carbon border rules are quietly transforming Chinese industry, and why this war could force a fundamental rethink of where the world builds its aluminium smelters.