HONG KONG -- Every time American lawmakers tried to crack down on cheap Chinese aluminum over the last decade, the leaders of China Zhongwang Holdings seemed to find a way to keep their products flowing into the U.S.
When Washington imposed "anti-dumping" rules on the aluminum it produced for window and door frames in 2009, the company began exporting another product that wasn't covered by the regulations. After the U.S. clamped down on Chinese metal producers again in 2016, the company bought Germany's Aluminiumwerk Unna and began shipping products to America from there.