Aluminum Data Provider: Production, Trade, Prices, Scrap and Recycling · Head-to-head
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum vs International Aluminium Institute Statistics
Which aluminum data provider: production, trade, prices, scrap and recycling data fits your job: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum, or International Aluminium Institute Statistics. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum
International Aluminium Institute Statistics
Coverage, side by side
| USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum | International Aluminium Institute Statistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | United States in detail; world smelter production and year-end capacity for 13 named countries plus other countries and a world total | Ten reporting areas - Africa, North America, South America, Asia (ex China), Western & Central Europe, Russia & Eastern Europe, Europe (inc Russia) from January 2025, Oceania, the Gulf Cooperation Council, China (Estimated); a by-country power-consumption series adds country detail |
| Temporal | Five most recent complete years in the salient table (2020-2024e in the January 2025 edition); annual editions since the 1930s | Production series generally from January 1973 onward, China from 01/1999; country participation windows documented per area (Egypt from 12/1975) |
| Granularity | National annual totals; country-level annual production and capacity | Monthly for production series, quarterly for safety, annual for energy, emissions and intensity series |
What each contains
Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum | International Aluminium Institute Statistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | USGS (National Minerals Information Center) | International Aluminium Institute (IAI), the industry's statistical body since 1972 |
| Subject lens | One chapter of the annual Mineral Commodity Summaries volume: a five-year US salient statistics table plus world smelter production and capacity, recycling, import sources, tariffs and substitutes | Twelve recurring series: monthly primary aluminium and alumina production by reporting area plus annual power consumption, energy intensity, GHG, PFC/fluoride emissions and quarterly workplace safety |
| Geographic coverage | United States in detail; world smelter production and year-end capacity for 13 named countries plus other countries and a world total | Ten reporting areas - Africa, North America, South America, Asia (ex China), Western & Central Europe, Russia & Eastern Europe, Europe (inc Russia) from January 2025, Oceania, the Gulf Cooperation Council, China (Estimated); a by-country power-consumption series adds country detail |
| Temporal depth | Five most recent complete years in the salient table (2020-2024e in the January 2025 edition); annual editions since the 1930s | Production series generally from January 1973 onward, China from 01/1999; country participation windows documented per area (Egypt from 12/1975) |
| Granularity | National annual totals; country-level annual production and capacity | Monthly for production series, quarterly for safety, annual for energy, emissions and intensity series |
| Field dictionary | 14 documented fields, verified during research | 8 documented fields, verified during research |
| Units | Thousand metric tons unless specified; spot ingot price in cents per pound; employment in headcount; net import reliance as a percent | Tonnes of liquid aluminium tapped and Al2O3 equivalent; megawatt-hours per tonne for power; emissions intensity per tonne; accidents per million hours worked |
| Best for | US market structure: consumption, trade balance, price, stocks, tariffs, stockpile policy | Global supply monitoring and sustainability: regional output month by month, energy and emissions intensities |
What each does better
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum
The United States in one page. Apparent consumption of 4,300 thousand metric tons in 2024e, built as primary production plus secondary from old scrap plus imports minus exports adjusted for stock changes. Net import reliance at 47% of that consumption. Canada supplying 56% of 2020-23 imports. Average spot ingot at 130 cents per pound. Year-end industry stocks near 1,600 thousand metric tons against just 10 in LME US warehouses. Employment of 30,000 workers under NAICS 3313. No other record in the pairing - or in the slice - assembles those numbers side by side; see mineral commodity statistics.
Policy context nobody else prints. The chapter lists HTS tariff lines with normal-trade-relations ad valorem rates as of December 31, 2024 (unwrought aluminum at 2.6%, for instance), names import sources by share, and reproduces the government stockpile acquisition/disposal schedule - the difference between reading a market and reading the rules it operates under.
Recycling, quantified. Secondary production is split into old scrap (1,600 thousand metric tons in 2024e) and new scrap (2,000), which makes the US recovery story computable straight off the table - see recycling scrap supply.
International Aluminium Institute Statistics
Cadence. Primary aluminium and alumina production update monthly for ten reporting areas; safety counts quarterly; energy, emissions and intensity series annually. The USGS chapter appears once per year each January, and its world table stops at thirteen named countries plus an 'other countries' line.
Depth. Production series generally run from January 1973 onward - China's from January 1999 - with country participation windows documented per area, Egypt from December 1975 among them. Five decades of continuous regional history against the USGS five-year window.
Sustainability series no datasheet matches. Smelting power consumption including AC-to-DC rectification and auxiliaries up to tapping, with a by-country breakdown; metallurgical alumina refining fuel consumption and energy intensity; sector-wide and primary-specific greenhouse-gas intensity; PFC and fluoride emissions; lost-time accident rates per million hours worked collected through Safety Correspondents. An ESG workflow can be staffed entirely from this record; see ESG emissions analysis.
Scope discipline in print. Every statistics page documents what a figure means - primary aluminium means metal tapped, not cast; power data carry an explicit caveat that they are not suitable for life-cycle-assessment purposes. Definitions travel with the numbers.
Where they're equivalent
More than their shapes suggest. Both field dictionaries were verified during research - true of 12 of the slice's 13 records. Both compile primary production for China, the world's largest producer, and both publish their estimate of it explicitly rather than silently: USGS at an estimated 43,000 thousand metric tons for 2024e, the IAI as its 'China (Estimated)' reporting area drawing on analysts including Aladdiny, Antaike, CNIA and CRU Group. Both annotate revisions in-table so historical comparisons can be audited. And both are primary compilers - the National Minerals Information Center on one side, the institute founded in 1972 as the industry's statistical body on the other - so neither inherits another publisher's methodology wholesale. Both also support month-grain thinking only partially: the USGS window is annual by construction, while the IAI's production series are among the 458 of 1,744 cataloged datasets carrying monthly grids.
The verdict
Verdict: sample both, pick by fit - they answer different questions about the same metal.
Anything answered by one authoritative annual page belongs here - see mineral commodity statistics.
Take International Aluminium Institute Statistics if your question names the globe, a month, or a footprint: regional supply shifts, alumina balances, power draw per tonne by country, emission intensity trajectories, safety performance. Market-monitoring and ESG work lives here.
Market researchers and consultants tend toward the first for US market sizing and the second for global supply tracking; journalists and academics cite the USGS tables for national figures and the IAI series for world trends. If the fit is not obvious from the question, sample both - the field dictionaries above settle it faster than any ranking.
Sample both, pick by fit. See USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum · See International Aluminium Institute Statistics
Or take both in one feed
Yes - as almanac and pulse, and the seam between them is productive.
Three seams decide whether the merge holds. First, keys: USGS speaks in countries, the IAI in reporting areas, so an area-to-country crosswalk comes before any join - 'Europe (inc Russia)' and 'Asia (ex China)' have no USGS counterpart rows. Second, definitions: the IAI's primary figure is metal tapped, excluding recycled metal, while USGS separates primary from secondary explicitly - do not sum across those categories. Third, timing: USGS figures arrive as January estimates marked 'e' and are revised in later editions, while the IAI revises retroactively with asterisks, so overlapping vintages must be pinned to a snapshot date.
Where both publish a number for the same cell - Chinese primary output is the obvious case - treat disagreement as information: one is an official estimate of 43,000 thousand metric tons for 2024e, the other a voluntary-reporting aggregate with unreported output modeled in. Browse the rest of the shelf at the aluminum data hub and the best aluminum datasets ranking.
Datadory ships either record alone or both merged onto one calendar, delivered daily, weekly, or hourly - your call. Or take both in one feed.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Fair questions
Is USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries - Aluminum better than International Aluminium Institute Statistics?
Better at different jobs. USGS owns the United States: apparent consumption of 4,300 thousand metric tons in 2024e, 47% net import reliance, spot ingot at 130 cents per pound, stocks, employment, tariffs and stockpile policy on one annual page rated 9/10. The IAI owns the world month by month: primary aluminium and alumina output for ten reporting areas since 1973, plus power, emissions and safety series, rated 8/10. Sample both, pick by fit.
Do the two datasets cover the same countries?
Only partly. USGS reports the US in full detail plus thirteen named producing countries - China at an estimated 43,000 thousand metric tons in 2024e - and an other-countries line. The IAI aggregates into ten reporting areas such as Asia (ex China), the Gulf Cooperation Council and Europe (inc Russia), dropping to country level only in its by-country power-consumption series. Joining them requires an area-to-country crosswalk.
How often is each dataset updated?
On different rhythms. The USGS chapter appears once a year each January with a five-year rolling salient table, estimates flagged 'e' and revised figures flagged 'r' in later editions. The IAI updates primary aluminium and alumina production monthly, safety quarterly, and its energy, emissions and intensity series annually, marking revisions with one asterisk and Estimated Unreported output with two.
Which dataset reaches further back for aluminium?
The IAI by decades: production series generally start January 1973, China's in January 1999, with documented participation windows per area such as Egypt from December 1975. USGS publishes annual editions reaching back to the 1930s as separate documents, but each chapter's own tables cover only the five most recent complete years, 2020-2024e in the January 2025 edition.
Which should a market analyst tracking global aluminium supply sample first?
Start with International Aluminium Institute Statistics - monthly regional production from January 1973 onward is exactly the cadence the question asks for, and its alumina, power and emissions series extend the picture upstream.
Can Datadory deliver both datasets together?
Yes - alone or merged onto one calendar, delivered daily, weekly, or hourly, your call. Each arrives normalized to its documented field dictionary (14 fields on the USGS side, 8 on the IAI's) with sample rows for inspection before anything ships. The joining work is the reporting-area-to-country crosswalk and vintage alignment, handled in the merge. Or take both in one feed.