JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The US Aluminum Association (AA) has accused Chinese companies of misclassifying certain products to avoid duties on primary aluminium and has insisted that China steps up to its responsibilities to play fair.

AA president and CEO Heidi Brock told the International Aluminium Conference in Cape Town that Chinese companies were relabelling products to circumvent antidumping duties and were taking advantage of value-added tax rebates on semi-fabricated products. 

She outlined how Chinese imports of aluminium to the US had increased by 183% since 2012 and were taking their toll on the local US aluminium industry.

Brock said that, prior to 2011, most of the aluminium from China was in extrusions. Chinese exports to the US dropped substantially following antidumping cases against China.

However, she said Chinese products had now shifted to other aluminium products. Through “transshipments” the aluminium was melted down and made into another product.

“This behaviour is not in China’s interest and not in the global aluminium industry’s best interest either. We support free trade, but also fair trade. We are calling for a level playing field.”

The US has had to close down some aluminium smelters and retrench employees, because of the oversupply of aluminium from China, which contributes 55% of the world’s supply.

“This is an extremely challenging time for domestic producers. Smelters have had to close in the US. We hope that those that have curtailed capacity can reopen when markets improve.”

The US and Chinese governments will be holding bilateral meetings later this year to discuss aluminum capacity issues.

“We’ll also be working to address issues that lack transparency . . . products that are misclassified and transshipped. We’ll be raising our voice, together with others in the manufacturing sector,” said Brock.

She also lambasted China’s aluminium industry for having the highest carbon emissions in the world.

She stated that if China’s aluminium industry was a country, it would be the sixteenth-largest greenhouse-gas emitter.

She said the US had worked relentlessly on its environmental reputation and had significantly cut carbon emissions, yet China was not playing ball.

“It’s a reputation we all benefit from,” she told aluminium experts at the conference. “This reputation is at risk due to China’s contribution to global carbon emissions.”

Brock said China contributed 68% of total global carbon dioxide emissions from smelting in 2014.

“We want to see a sustainable industry. In the short term, we want to see the Chinese government address the oversupply of aluminium, align supply with demand, increase transparency, cut emissions, enforce globally accepted environmental, health and safety standards, clean up inefficient smelters and cut the use of coal.”

Brock said it was in every region’s interest to “call out corruption” and the abuse of trade and tax laws.

She said the decline in primary production in the US had shifted to a more focused secondary picture, with the industry focusing more on producing recycled aluminium.