Huge aluminium stockpile discovered in Mexican desert: U.S. sees a Chinese connection

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, two years ago, a California aluminium executive commissioned a pilot to fly over the Mexican town of San José Iturbide, at the foot of the Sierra Gorda mountains, and snap aerial photos of a remote desert factory.

He made a startling discovery. Nearly one million metric tons of aluminium sat neatly stacked behind a fortress of barbed-wire fences. The stockpile, worth some $2 billion and representing roughly 6% of the world’s total inventory—enough to churn out 2.2 million Ford F-150s or 77 billion beer cans—quickly became an obsession for the U.S. aluminium industry.

Now it is a new source of tension in U.S.-Chinese trade relations. U.S. executives contend that the mysterious cache was part of a brazen scheme by one of China’s richest men to game the global trade system.

Aluminium-industry representative and President of Aluminium Extruders Council, a U.S. trade group, Jeff Henderson says he is convinced that China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., a Chinese aluminium major, tried to evade U.S. tariffs by routing aluminium through Mexico to disguise its origins, a tactic known as transhipping.

“My Moby-Dick has been Zhongwang,” says Mr. Henderson.

Mr. Liu, a member of China’s ruling Communist Party, denies any connection to the Mexican aluminium or transhipping. “These things have nothing to do with me,” he said in a June interview.  He said he wouldn’t know how to establish a business in Mexico.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.