Diet Coke break: How the aluminium shortage could be affecting the production of your favourite soft drink

When I told my housemate there was a Diet Coke shortage, she almost fell to her knees. “Do not come to me with this news. I’ll go and protest. I’ll get arrested. My day is ruined. I’ll genuinely be insufferable to be around,” she screamed, clutching the side of the fridge.

In the hellscape of 2026, the drink of choice for many looking for that addictive boost at lunch before sending a flurry of fizz-fuelled emails is in danger. In recent weeks, reports have emerged that Diet Coke is vanishing from shelves across India as addicts start to stockpile the cans due to fears of an aluminium shortage linked to the Iran war disrupting supplies of the metal.

This shortage scare has seen the birth of a new social phenomenon across the country: “Diet Coke parties” where bars, influencers and restaurants charge punters an entry fee of around £12 to get access to their scarce supply of DC. At one event in Mumbai, the entry tickets doubled as raffle entries, with two winners taking home 50 cans of Diet Coke each.

Over here, unlike in India, Diet Coke is sold in plastic bottles, too. But ask anyone partial to a fridge cigarette – it just doesn’t hit the same when it’s not in an ice-cold can. Still, thankfully for my housemate and the thousands of women like her, shortages haven’t hit the UK – yet.

While Nadine Bloxsome, CEO of the UK’s Aluminium Federation, says we’re not “currently seeing evidence of an imminent aluminium shortage”, she acknowledges the UK is “more exposed than other countries” as we import the majority of our aluminium from other nations, which makes our supplies vulnerable to periods of geopolitical instability.

The Middle East has the capacity to produce seven million metric tonnes of aluminium every year, which equates to nine per cent of the world’s production capacity. Roughly 75 per cent of this is then exported and used elsewhere, Reuters reports. Take Russia out of the equation, due to sanctions over its Ukraine invasion, and this number continues to climb.

The metal comes from an auburn coloured mineral called bauxite. Refining and smelting it takes huge amounts of energy, hence why equipment is often located in regions like the Middle East, where they have the means to produce it. When Iran started limiting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, plants in the Gulf began to struggle to import raw materials and export aluminium. Due to the uncertainty, smelters in Qatar and Bahrain shut down.

Then, in March there were Iranian airstrikes on two major Middle East producers and the Al Taweelah plant in Abu Dhabi, which was responsible for making 1.6 million tons of the metal last year, was entirely closed. Aluminium prices surged to a four-year high, with a benchmark on the London Metal Exchange (LME) recording at $3,672 (£2,721) in April.

Tom Giddings, executive director of the aluminium packaging recycling organisation Alupro says this is “another example of why the UK should be building a local, resilient circular economy for key materials” and appeals to DC drinkers to use can-to-can recycling schemes like the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which is set to launch here next October, to “ensure we’re making the most of our own valuable materials” and not relying on others.

All this goes to say that, while empty shelves haven’t hit the UK yet, your Diet Coke habit – and other products you use in daily life (deodorant cans, some heartburn pills) – could be due to get pricier. “If elevated prices persist for a prolonged period, some additional costs will inevitably filter down to manufacturers and consumers,” Bloxsome says, making clear she doesn’t anticipate a “widespread” shortage of aluminium packaged consumer goods.

“Producers, traders, and the wider supply chain remain relatively optimistic,” she assures from the World Aluminium Summit in London, while Donald Trump is over in China attempting to get President Xi Jinping to support him in pressuring Iran to reopen the Hormuz Strait. “The general view is that the industry is still functioning well, with contingency planning and diversified sourcing helping to maintain resilience,” she says.

But even in a best-case scenario where the war in Iran ends tomorrow, the aluminium plants in the Middle East won’t reboot immediately. Smelters take time to warm up. If the conflict were resolved quickly, pricing pressures would likely ease,” Bloxsome says, “Although supply chains and freight markets would still take time to fully stabilise.”

The reaction of my housemate and no doubt many others reading the news might sound dramatic, but Diet Coke is more than just a mass-produced calorie-free soda – it’s a cultural phenomenon. Most recently, in March, the fizz was named the official drink for The Devil Wears Prada 2.

It figures that Andy Sachs would sip a silver can while editing articles at Runway. Since 2025, Gen Z have dubbed the silver can a “fridge cigarette”, which takes the concept of a “Diet Coke break” – promoted to women most memorably in 1994 via an advert where a builder takes his top off for the girls during office elevenses – to new heights.

“The crack of a can is like the spark of a lighter,” Rachel Reno, a freelance creator who popularised the term in a viral video in 2025, told The New York Times, adding that, after the first syrupy sip of the sparkling bubbles, “all of the worries and cares in the world go away”.

But those worries might be here to stay. No matter how big a Diet Coke addict you are, most people aren’t looking to buy industrial amounts of aluminium to satisfy their habit. But the longer the supplies of the material are disrupted and prices stay up, the likelier it is that consumer costs of canned drinks go up.