Beginning June 29, 2022, the U.S. Commerce Department (Commerce) Aluminum Import licensing applications will require both fields of “country of largest smelt” and “country of second largest smelt.” Commerce defines the field for the country of smelt for the largest (and second largest) volume of primary aluminum as the country where the largest volume of new aluminum metal is produced from alumina (refined aluminum oxide) by the electrolytic Hall-Héroult process. Based on public comments in response to the preliminary rule, in the final rule, it was determined that importers/brokers would need time to gather the required information for the countries of smelt and a grace period was granted for these fields; importers were permitted to indicate “unknown” for one year upon implementation of the regulations.

Commerce extended the temporary period to allow for license applicants to state “unknown” in the fields for country(ies) of smelt for the largest and second largest volume of primary aluminum until June 28, 2022. Commerce will begin requiring the requested information for these fields for license applications on or after June 29, 2022, meaning that filers may no longer state “unknown” for these fields after that date. For more information, please visit the Aluminum Import Monitoring (AIM) website at: Aluminum (trade.gov) and the Getting Started with AIM page (including the production process) or contact the aluminum licensing office at aluminum.license@trade.gov. Additionally, we will be hosting virtual office hours to answer questions about the AIM or the import licensing system on Tuesdays from 11:00 - 11:30 AM EST and Thursdays from 3:00 - 3:30 PM EST and are also offering virtual public license application demos on Wednesday, June 15 at 10:00 AM EST and Monday, June 27 at 2:00 PM EST.

To join the demos, please register by emailing aluminum.license@trade.gov and indicating which demo you want to attend.