{"id":60152,"date":"2025-05-27T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/05\/27\/canadian-aluminum-trader-blames-bankruptcy-on-trade-war\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:05:01","slug":"canadian-aluminum-trader-blames-bankruptcy-on-trade-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/05\/27\/canadian-aluminum-trader-blames-bankruptcy-on-trade-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian aluminum trader blames bankruptcy on trade war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/videos\/H8vWgs7X.mp4\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> A Canadian aluminum trader that had been struggling to restructure its debt has filed <\/p>\n<p>                bankruptcy<\/p>\n<p>                 in the U.S. and Canada, saying the American trade war helped push the company over the edge. <\/p>\n<p> Sinobec Group Inc. arranges deals between sellers and buyers of <\/p>\n<p>                aluminum ingots<\/p>\n<p>                , as well as finished items like building products, shower doors and fences, the company said in court papers filed in federal court in Illinois on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p> For about two years, Sinobec had been working with lenders after defaulting on one of its loans, company owner and chief executive Zhong Li said in court papers. Sinobec eventually hired financial advisor Alvarez &#038; Marsal to help refinance about US$103 million of debt, and lenders agreed to avoid taking action against the company. <\/p>\n<p> Tariffs imposed in recent months by <\/p>\n<p>                U.S. President Donald Trump<\/p>\n<p>                 hit Sinobec hard, the company said. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThis has exposed the debtors to the full impact of the trade war,\u201d company restructuring advisor Philippe Jordan, with <\/p>\n<p>                PricewaterhouseCoopers<\/p>\n<p>                , said in court papers. \u201cSignificant accounts receivable collections have halted, as the supply chain upon which the debtors rely for payment has ground to a halt.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Sinobec is one of the first companies to directly blame Trump\u2019s trade war for contributing to its bankruptcy. Experts have been predicting a wave of restructurings will hit the US later this year, especially among retailers and importers that rely on Chinese manufacturers. <\/p>\n<p> In April the president unilaterally imposed tariffs of 145 per cent on goods from China. Although he later lowered the duties to 45 per cent, the reduction did not help Sinobec because the cost \u201cis still well above the market\u2019s ability to absorb,\u201d the company said in court papers. <\/p>\n<p> Sinobec gets its aluminum from various countries, including China, Turkey and India. Most sales, however, are in North America, with more than 40 per cent of the company\u2019s customers in the U.S., the company said. <\/p>\n<p> Before filing for bankruptcy, the company had cut staff and reduced salaries. Sinobec employs 76 people at its headquarters in Montreal and in Florida. The company\u2019s assets are worth about US$232 million, according to court papers. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Corporate America forges ahead with spending plans<\/li>\n<li>Trump extends deadline for tariffs to July 9<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The case is Sinobec Group Inc., 25-80689, US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois <\/p>\n<p> <em>With assistance from Mathieu Dion<\/em> <\/p>\n<p> Bloomberg.com <\/p>\n\n<br \/>Canadian aluminum trader blames bankruptcy on trade war<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2025-05-27 15:05:01<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Canadian aluminum trader that had been struggling to restructure its debt has filed bankruptcy in the U.S. and Canada, saying the American trade war helped push the company over&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/60153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}