MEASURED · 19 OCTOBER 2026

Aluminum price per pound: every year since 1960, the US price, and what a can is worth

Aluminum averaged $1.49 a pound on the London Metal Exchange in September 2026, +24% in a year and 10% below the record set in May 2026. The US market price was higher in every year from 2021 to 2025, at an estimated $1.80 a pound in 2025. After inflation, aluminum is cheaper than in most months since 1960, and its June 1988 peak took 37.8 years to regain. Below: the price per pound, kilogram and metric ton, every year since 1960 in dollars of the day and of today, every crash of 40% or more, the US price against London’s, and what a can is worth.

The short answer

World Bank monthly average of the London Metal Exchange price for high-grade primary aluminum ingot, converted at 2,204.62 pounds to the metric ton. A monthly average smooths out single days. The US market price is USGS’s yearly figure; there is no monthly US series on this page.

Aluminum price history chart

Solid line: the monthly average in dollars of the day (World Bank, London Metal Exchange). Dashed: the same in August 2026 dollars (BLS consumer price index). Log scale, so equal heights are equal percentage moves.

Is aluminum at a record?

In dollars of the day, the record monthly average in data back to 1960 is May 2026: $1.66 a pound, $3,666 a ton. For almost four decades before that the high-water mark was June 1988, at $1.62. After inflation the picture reverses. That 1988 peak is $4.61 in today’s money, and even January 1960’s $0.23 is $2.65. Of the 801 months since January 1960, 462 were dearer in real terms than September 2026. The cheapest, after inflation, was April 2020: $0.66 a pound then, $0.87 today.

Every aluminum crash of 40% or more

A fall counts from a peak to the lowest monthly average before a 40% rally off that low. “Back to the peak” is the first month the average was at or above the old peak, in dollars of the day.

Aluminum has lost 40% or more seven times since 1960. The deepest fall was from June 1988: −59.4% in 20 months, to $0.66 a pound, and it was also the slowest to recover: 37.8 years, until April 2026. The fastest was July 2008 to February 2009, −56.7% in 7 months, and that peak took 13.6 years to regain. Every peak in the table has now been passed again in dollars of the day. In today’s dollars, three have not: June 1988, September 1990 and July 2008.

Aluminum price by year, 1960 to 2026

Average of the year’s monthly London averages, per pound; “today’s $” in August 2026 dollars. Change is against the previous year’s average. Per metric ton, multiply by 2,204.62.

The US price and the London price

The London price on this page is the world benchmark, and the US price has run above it. The US Geological Survey’s 2026 aluminum summary gives a yearly US market price for ingot, from S&P Global Platts. Against the World Bank’s London averages:

From 2021 to 2024 the US price ran 18% to 24% above London, before any of the 2025 tariffs. In 2025 USGS estimated it at $1.80, +51% above, and put the rise in the average US market price from 2024 at an estimated 39%. The same report records the tariff changes that year: a 25% tariff on aluminum and aluminum derivative products in March 2025 under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, raised by June to 50% for most countries (25% for the United Kingdom), and extended in August by more than 400 additional tariff codes, applying only to the aluminum content of those products. USGS does not say how much of the gap the tariffs explain, and the 2025 US figure is an estimate. For a US price on a given day, ask a US supplier or check a US market quote; for the long history, London’s is the series that goes back to 1960.

What an aluminum can is worth

The metal in an average North American aluminum beverage can weighs 12.99 g, according to the Aluminum Association (its average can holds 13.6 fluid ounces, a mix of sizes, and is 73% recycled metal). At the September 2026 London price that is 4.26 cents of aluminum a can, and about 35 cans make a pound. A scrap yard pays less than the exchange price, by an amount that depends on the yard and the grade; we do not measure scrap prices. Your weight in pounds times the exchange price is a reference point for judging a quote, not a quote.

In ten states the deposit is worth more than the metal. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont charge a deposit on drink containers and refund it on return: 5 cents in most, 10 cents in Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon, according to Wikipedia. Either refund is more than the 4.26 cents of aluminum in the can. Elsewhere a can is worth its scrap price.

Where US aluminum goes

By USGS’s figures, transportation took 36% of US aluminum consumption, packaging 24%, building 13%, electrical 9%, and consumer durables and machinery 8% each. Three companies operated the six US primary smelters, in five states; in 2025 two ran at full capacity, two at reduced capacity and two were temporarily shut down, for an estimated 660,000 metric tons of primary metal. About 3.6 million metric tons was recovered from purchased scrap, 44% of it from discarded aluminum products. Net import reliance was an estimated 60% of apparent consumption (traded scrap excluded), and Canada supplied 56% of imports from 2021 to 2024.

The same history for other metals is in copper price per pound, brass price per pound, gold price history, silver price history and oil price history. This page is history, not a forecast or personal advice.

How we measured it

Prices: the World Bank Pink Sheet (2 October 2026 release), monthly averages of the London Metal Exchange price for high-grade primary aluminum (the cash price before 2005, the settlement price since), January 1960 to September 2026, in dollars per metric ton, converted at 2,204.62 pounds per ton (1 lb = 453.59237 g). Today’s money: BLS CPI-U to August 2026; September 2026 is deflated with August 2026’s index. Crashes: a fall runs from a peak to the lowest monthly average before a 40% rally, and ends at the first month back at the old peak. US prices, uses and production: the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Cans: the Aluminum Association’s 2021 can life-cycle summary; deposits from Wikipedia’s list of US container deposit laws.

Common questions