As the principal user of old scrap, West European secondary aluminum smelters and refiners have traditionally played a key role in recycling of Al, producing for example cast material demanded primarily by the automobile industry. Over the last decade, the West European secondary smelter industry's position as the nucelus of the Al recycling industry has been challenged, due to changes in both the supply and demand sides of the secondary industry. On the supply side of example, there is now more competition for high-grade (new) scrap from wrought remelters and primary producers, with narrower margins for the refiners as a consequence. On the demand side, the secondary industry is still heavily dependent on the development in the auto industry. The purpose of this paper is to explore the supply-demand relationships in the market for secondary Al alloys. Based on a standard microeconomic model of price determination in the short run where the determinants of supply and demand are identified, a simple econometric model, using data for Germany, France, Italy and the UK for the period 1983-1997 will be developed. The model will be used to assess the relative importance of the factors determining the supply and demand of the European secondary Al industry