According to Automotive News, the head of an aluminum industry association in Japan said on Wednesday(July 25, local time),

In May this year, the US president Trump ordered an national security investigation on imported cars. It’s mentioned that in March this year,the US imposed a 25% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum. Before that, Washington also conducted a similar investigation to the above two materials.

Ichiro Okamoto, president of the Japan Aluminum Association, said in an interview: “the US tariff on imported steel and aluminum has not caused much harm to the Japanese aluminum industry.” The reason is that the Japanese goods exporting to America are mainly high-end goods.It can not be easily replaced by American products.

He also said:” the US government would impose tax on imported cars is worried, which will have a huge impact on Japanese industries, including aluminum.
About 15% of the 2 million tons of rolled aluminum products in Japan each year are used in automotive industry.

Ichiro Okamoto also said:” If the trade war which involving the automotive industry really breaks out, it’s impact will exceed our imagination.”

He said the Japan Aluminum Association will cooperate with the Japanese government to prevent the further action of the US.
Ichiro Okamoto is also the president of Nippon Light Metal Holdings in Japan.
From April this year, the US government imposed sanctions on Russia’s United Aluminum Corporation. It caused customers who has contact with the US cannot purchase goods from that company. The entire aluminum industry was in chaos from that.
After the announcement of the above mentioned sanctions news, the price of aluminum on London Metal Exchange jumped to its highest point in seven years, an increase of 35%. However, on the one hand, the industry expects that sanctions may be revoked. On the other hand, some enterprises delaying to stop the purchase agreement with Russia United Aluminum Corporation played a certain role in the market.
Ichiro Okamoto said, we hope that the market will return to normal. He also revealed that relevant Japanese companies are expanding the supply of raw materials to cope with ant emergencies in the future.
Look ahead, Ichiro Okamoto said the automotive industry, including electric vehicles, will create core development opportunities for Japanese aluminum companies. For automakers, they are seeking to the standards which cut the weight of cars to reduce emissions and can meet the government’s requirement.
The British Commodity Research Institute has previously released a forecast that the demand for aluminum materials for electric and hybrid vehicles will increase tenfold by 2030, close to the level of 10 million tons.
Ichiro Okamoto said, aluminum materials can be used in the manufacturing process of body and internal parts.

He also pointed out, the demand for aluminum foil used in the assembly of lithium batteries is increasing rapidly.

He told reporters, the material for assembled battery unit is very demanding on quality. And this is also the filed that Japanese manufacturer can use their advanced technology in.