The U.S. Commerce Department is investigating whether thousands of tons of aluminum at a factory in a Philadelphia suburb are part of an alleged scheme by a Chinese billionaire to evade tariffs by disguising the metal as shipping pallets and then remelting them for other uses.
The probe is part of a broader Commerce Department investigation into metals magnate Liu Zhongtian and his company, China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., among the world’s largest aluminum manufacturers, according to federal documents and a department spokesman.
Mr. Liu and China Zhongwang were subjects of a Wall Street Journal article last week detailing allegations that firms linked to Mr. Liu tried to disguise the Chinese origin of large quantities of aluminum and avoid American tariffs by routing it through Mexico. Mr. Liu denied any connection to metal stockpiled in Mexico, which people familiar with the matter say once reached nearly a million metric tons, or enough to make 77 billion beer cans.