Analysis
NAICS 331313 is the 2022 national industry for alumina refining and primary aluminum production, part of 33131 (Alumina and Aluminum Production and Processing). Census lists 14 example activities under it in the official index.
Between 2018 and 2023 the number of establishments fell 27% and employment fell 15%. The 2018 count used NAICS 2017, so part of a large move can come from codes being redefined rather than from businesses opening or closing.
County Business Patterns counts 32 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 3,583 people at an average annual payroll of $94,509 per employee (80th percentile of national industries). 34% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which is close to the national mix.
By establishments it ranks 4th of the 4 codes at this level within Alumina and Aluminum Production and Processing, with 7.4% of them.
Its index entries, the activities Census uses to assign businesses to this code, include alumina refining, aluminum alloys made from bauxite or alumina producing…, aluminum ingot and other primary aluminum production shapes… and aluminum oxide refining, among 14 in all.
Its goods appear in 11 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 7601 (unwrought aluminum) and 2818 (artificial corundum, whether or not chemically defined…). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.
Official definition
This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in one or more of the following: (1) refining alumina (i.e., aluminum oxide) generally from bauxite; (2) making aluminum from alumina; and/or (3) making aluminum from alumina and rolling, drawing, extruding, or casting the aluminum they make into primary forms. Establishments in this industry may make primary aluminum or aluminum-based alloys from alumina.
Cross-references. Establishments primarily engaged in--
Source: US Census Bureau, NAICS 2022 Manual.
Not this code if…
Index entries (14)
- Alumina refining
- Aluminum alloys made from bauxite or alumina producing primary aluminum and manufacturing
- Aluminum ingot and other primary aluminum production shapes made from bauxite or alumina
- Aluminum oxide refining
- Aluminum producing from alumina
- Aluminum shapes (e.g., bar, ingot, rod, sheet) made by producing primary aluminum and manufacturing
- Extrusion ingot, primary aluminum, manufacturing
- Ingot, primary aluminum, manufacturing
- Primary aluminum production and manufacturing aluminum alloys
- Primary aluminum production and manufacturing aluminum shapes (e.g., bar, ingot, rod, sheet)
- Primary refining of aluminum
- Primary smelting of aluminum
- Refining aluminum, primary
- Slab, primary aluminum, manufacturing