Can the U.S. finally slow down China’s takeover of aluminum?
An employee works at an aluminum products factory in Huaibei, Anhui. Credit: Li Xin/VCG via Getty Images
It was a complex scheme for a simple crime: With dozens of shell corporations, a gargantuan aluminum stockpile in the central Mexican countryside and several warehouses scattered across Los Angeles and New Jersey ports, the Chinese aluminum firm Zhongwang Holdings successfully avoided U.S. tariffs for at least four years, defrauding the American government out of $1.8 billion.
Liu Zhongtian toasts during the ceremony for Zhongwang Holdings' listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, May 8, 2009. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
The time was the early 2010s, and privately-owned Zhongwang was one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, a globally dominant force that generated hundreds of millions in annual profits. The company's 2009 IPO in Hong Kong made the its founder, Liu Zhongtian, a billionaire — completing the rags-to-riches story of a man who built an empire on the back of China’s economic rise and its booming trade with the United States.
Zhongwang’s business
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