Few industries took the 1960 recession harder than that postwar wonder child of the metal business—aluminum. Its for tunes sagged along with the sagging fortunes of its major users: automakers and home builders. For the industry as a whole, profits last year slipped 27%, to $88 million. Last January, Reynolds Metals Co. President Richard S. Reynolds Jr., who had predicted that aluminum sales would be substantially up in 1960, dejectedly confessed: "My guess was just wrong."
Last week, after long months of price cuts and production gluts, the aluminum industry was shining brighter again. Following the lead of frdnt-running Alcoa,...
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