BALTIMORE — There's been a high demand for aluminum here in the United States and around the world.
And that's causing shortages in both the cat food aisle--and at your local brewery.
Complicating the issue are the usual suspects of labor shortages, the pandemic, and the ongoing supply chain crisis.
Production isn't able to keep up with demand.
And China's pollution crackdown is driving down the worldwide manufacturing of aluminum 10 to 20 percent.
So you have production down on top of the fact that pet adoptions soared during the pandemic, raising the demand for cat food.
As alcohol consumption rose during the pandemic, so did demand for aluminum canned products.
With that breweries shifted towards to-go models. But the shortage on aluminum has triggered price increases which have taken a major toll on small local craft breweries across the country.
"Pretty much everything has gotten more expensive... Most notably our packaging, the aluminum cans, lids and really anything we use connected to the product," said Kyle Cebull, CEO of Millennial Brewing.
So why are we not seeing a shortage of soda cans at the supermarket? According to the website Craftlab, it's because large companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, or Anheuser Busch predicted the shortage and were able to snap up the supply.
