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Walsh, Colorado | I saw this article in my Twitter Feed today. Its from last week but details motivations behind our Aluminum Tariffs that are hurting everyone within the industry except one notable little company
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-09-27/the-metal-that-st...
"What wasn’t mentioned was that Century’s biggest shareholder is Glencore Plc, the Swiss trading company that is the biggest buyer and seller of commodities in the world. Century was spun out of Glencore in 1996. The Swiss company still owns about 40 percent of Century stock and has a seat on Century’s board. Most of the aluminum Century makes is sold to Glencore, which then resells it to buyers through its trading operation. According to a government filing by Century, Glencore accounts for 75 percent of Century’s consolidated net sales.
While Century was lobbying the Trump administration, Glencore, along with a handful of other commodity trading companies, was stockpiling record amounts of foreign aluminum in the U.S.—the idea being, if tariffs were announced, prices would rise, and all that cheap foreign metal would suddenly become more valuable.
And that’s what happened. When the tariffs went into effect, about 2.2 million tons of foreign aluminum was sitting in warehouses in the U.S., according to Harbor Intelligence, a market research firm. Glencore owned somewhere from 100,000 to 400,000 tons, according to four traders who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. And when the tariffs went into effect? Boom—instant profit, in the tens of millions. Next year could be even more lucrative for Glencore and Century. A financial analysis by Bloomberg projects Century will enjoy record revenue in 2019. That will be good news for several hundred workers in Kentucky and South Carolina—and even better for traders in Zug, Switzerland."
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Aluminum WTF?
