Aluminum, iron, and steel built America. But we have become too dependent on imports, and dozens of domestic plants have been closed, with consequences for our economy and national security. New technologies and low-cost energy offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the next generation of modern and efficient plants and protect American ideals around the world – but only if we act now.
We are a nonpartisan coalition of associations, companies, and organizations that support bipartisan federal action to strengthen and expand the foundation of America’s defense industrial base. We advocate for policies that strengthen the global competitiveness of U.S. aluminum, iron, and steel manufacturing, as well as other critical materials and minerals, and we strive to restore and grow America’s workforce.
We agree that aluminum, iron, and steel are critical industries, and that their competitiveness is essential to protecting U.S. economic security. Reinforcing components of the defense industrial base, such as shipbuilding and primary aluminum production, is vital to national security.
We support federal policy that promotes the preservation and creation of good-paying middle-class American jobs, including in the cities and towns hit by plant closures. We also support workforce development and reskilling programs to train workers in these critical industries.
To spur long-term domestic investment, our trade law needs to be durable, transparent, and objective. We support markets, competition, and free trade with partners that share our values. At the same time, we believe in holding other countries accountable for unfair trade practices, including, but not limited to, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, and the use of lax environmental and labor practices and standards to create an artificial competitive advantage at our expense.
We support federal policies that enable the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies to improve the efficiency and global competitiveness of the U.S. aluminum, iron, and steel industries.
We recognize the link between our long-term industrial competitiveness and access to affordable, clean, and reliable energy resources.
We support smart federal action, including, but not limited to, innovation, energy access, infrastructure, and the opening of markets, that helps or enables aluminum, iron, and steel manufacturers to upgrade and/or build new facilities, compete on a level playing field with international imports, and create good-paying jobs.
For more than a century, American steel and aluminum have formed the backbone of our national defense. From the shipyards of World War I to today’s air fleets, these metals have powered our ability to defend the nation and respond to global crises. Steel and aluminum are essential inputs for munitions, ships, aircrafts, and other military infrastructure. Their production created an abundance of American jobs during and after the war and laid the foundation for strong manufacturing communities nationwide.
Let’s take a look back at how the federal government helped build these critical industries to meet wartime demands and lay the foundation for postwar economic growth.
To meet wartime material needs, the federal government helped build more than fifty new aluminum production and fabrication plants, financed the construction of new steel plants through the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC), and invested heavily in electricity generation through the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to rapidly scale up production. The modern aluminum industry also began taking shape during this period, with the government promoting competition and efficiency by selling off government-owned plants after the war.
Wartime production set the stage for a broader industrial expansion, particularly in aluminum and steel manufacturing across key regions, including the Pacific Coast, Gulf Coast, Arkansas, and the Ohio River Valley. By the end of World War II, the U.S. was producing 40% of the world’s steel and played a critical role in helping rebuild Europe’s war-damaged infrastructure.
Despite continued demand from the defense industrial base, current trends — including rising reliance on imports, aging infrastructure, and shrinking domestic capacity — threaten to undermine national security and jeopardize our ability to rebuild the steel and aluminum industries we once led. We’ve faced this challenge before, and we met it with bold, coordinated federal action. We must rise to the moment again. Now is the time for a renewed federal commitment—through bipartisan legislation authorizing strategic federal investment and bold executive action—to revitalize and modernize the American steel and aluminum industries. These sectors remain essential to sustaining a strong and secure defense industrial base, underscoring the urgent need to restore and strengthen them for our national security.
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