Korean aluminum industry opposes rolling expansion of China's Mingtai Aluminum in the country

Aluminium industry in South Korea is lobbying against a Chinese aluminium major that is trying to enter the market on the back of the trade war with the USA. The aluminium major, Henan Mingtai Aluminum Industrial Co. is claimed to boast one of the world’s largest capacities in aluminium foil and coil.

Members of the Korea Nonferrous Metal Association have put up a request last Friday at the offices of Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone Authority in the southern province of South Jeolla to reject Henan Mingtai Aluminum Industrial Co.’s proposal to build a plant there.

If Henan Mingtai Aluminum builds a manufacturing plant at Korea, the Korean companies think, it will hit the domestic industry severely. Mingtai Aluminum is China’s second-largest aluminium rolling mill with an annual capacity of 770,000 tons. Their capacity is equivalent to about 80 per cent of the annual aluminium output of 1.02 million tonnes by Korean companies. Building an extra aluminium plant by a foreign heavy weight might create an oversupply of rolled aluminium products in the country, which in turn may put pressure on the aluminium prices.

According to the reports, Mingtai Aluminum recently set up an entity called Gwangyang Aluminum Industrial in Korea and has submitted a plan to the free economic zone authorities in Korea to invest an estimated US$35.2 million in an 83,000-square-meter site to produce about 20,000 tonnes of aluminium products.

The development came after the imposition of 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium imports by the Trump administration, which has disrupted trade between the U.S. and China. On top of these duties, Chinese aluminium foil imports were subject to additional countervailing duties of about 17 per cent to 81 per cent and anti-dumping duties of 49 per cent to 105 per cent in the U.S.  These restrictive policies have compelled China to look for alternative market and investment zones within Asia and other countries.