U.S. Lawmakers Urge Treasury Secretary to Reject Zhongwang’s Purchase of Aleris

Over two dozen United States legislators signed a letter calling upon U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to disallow the sale of value-added aluminium firm Aleris to the People’s Republic of China’s controversial aluminium titan China Zhongwang Holdings. The letter, which was distributed to Reuters yesterday, cited national security concerns as their grounds for objecting to the potential sale. Friday’s letter termed the sale a “strategic misstep” to allow the US$2.33 billion sale to go forward, as Aleris develops and tests aluminium alloys that are of significant import to the nation’s defense industry. Signatories of the letter included House of Representative Democrats David Loebsack (Iowa), Tim Ryan (Ohio), Gene Green (Texas), Debbie Dingell (Michigan), Seth Moulton (Massachusetts), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Pete Aguilar (California), Tony Cárdenas (California), Brenda Lawrence (Michigan), Norma Torres (California), Linda Sánchez (California). Among the House Republican signers were Robert Pittenger (North Carolina), Keith Rothfus (Pennsylvania), and French Hill (Arkansas).