Skasi

That doesn't negate the fact that he already introduced tariffs on aluminum in 2018.

Trump administration imposed tariffs on EU steel in March 2025

I don't know how old your linked article is, as it's behind a paywall, but according to different sources aluminum US tariffs on aluminum were already implemented or increased in June 2018.

Did China also impose tariffs on EU steel in the meantime? Or, why should chinese companies copy the american companies?

The EU Packaging Waste Regulation laws which demand higher recycling rates were enacted in 2025. So considering the 2018s tariffs, US companies had reasons to import aluminum scrap for 7 more years. The increases in available scrap and on tariffs in 2025 surely strengthened this though.

That's all very interesting, so if the your linked article is older, does that mean Chinese companies are copying US ones on this? Or maybe it's not as simple as that. Either way, to me it sounds like the Indian-owned US subsidiary Novelis has created facilities in Europe and did not account for aluminum scrap getting bought up by other companies.

The TL;DR is misleading. The EU has not "started to recycle aluminum". It had already done so for a long long time. I feel like the TL;DR also singles out China, seeing as it fails to mention that US companies are also increasingly importing scrap.