China’s Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) responded to widespread accusations in overseas media regarding the alleged fake semis activity in Mexico by China Zhongwang and related companies. The charges, which have lately appeared in prominent media outlets like the Wall Street Journal “seriously deviated from reality.”
A tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party described a statement sent to the editors earlier this week described the 15% tax levied upon raw aluminium exported from the country, and how such a tariff makes turning a profit on exported raw aluminium difficult. The statement also made the argument that aluminium shipped to Mexico cannot obtain a legal certificate of origin from that country, making the importer still liable for tariffs levied against products imported into the United States. The CNIA went on to allege that the partially-machined aluminium stockpile found in Mexico, by itself, does not run afoul of either Mexican or Chinese laws.
In addition to CNIA’s statement, the newspaper described a separate statement from China Zhongwang that put forth the claim that the firm has no manufacturing base outside of China, and that the firm abides by all relevant laws and regulations on exports.
Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation research fellow Bai Ming told the newspaper that he had doubts as to the sufficiency of the evidence published in overseas media in showing the trade in fake aluminium semis.
“First, overseas reports about the aluminum in Mexico and its origin are not clear enough. Second, overseas media organizations haven’t got sufficient proof that the stockpile is used for transshipping instead of for other purposes, such as for sale in Mexico,” Bai told the Global Times on Monday.
Industry media outlet American Metal Markets (AMM) came into possession of photos showing a sizeable stockpile of aluminium extrusions in 2014, possibly up to 850,000 metric tons, at the Aluminicaste Fundición de México S. de RL de CV plant in San José Iturbide, Guanajuato. Dupré Analytics, an anonymous group that researches Chinese companies, subsequently published a report in 2015 alleging that a proxy company of China’s Zhongwang Holdings shipped over one million metric tons of extrusions to Mexico between 2013 and 2014.